Womanhood
by FandomFluid
Summary: A series of oneshots focused on Akito's struggle with femininity through her life. Rating will probably go up.
1. Chapter 1

Akito woke up to the instinctual feeling that something was off, as well as the dull throbbing in her stomach. She sighed and laid back down, paying it all no mind. She was used to her stomach feeling weird, it was something that almost always came with sickness and was therefore, just a fact of her life. At any given point, her stomach could start feeling weird for a while, and she'd just have to accept it.

She sighed and laid her head back down on the pillow, turning over and pulling her legs up closer to her chest to try and diminish at least some of the pain. It didn't work, leaving her groaning with impatience and sitting up in her futon. She rubbed the back of her neck and glanced around her dark room. The only streams of light came from the moon and a street lamp just outside the main estate. She had no idea what time it was, but she decided it had to be past midnight. Shigure had always called it 'The Witching Hour' when he told her stories of all sorts of monsters and demons that wandered the Earth at that time of night, looking to prey upon the little humans dumb enough to be out and about when they should be in bed. She quickly looked away from the window, not because she was scared she might see something out there, though. She just wasn't interested.

The throbbing seemed to get worse, making her groan in pain and lean over where she sat. She felt like she'd been simultaneously punched and stabbed in the gut, and the pain itself made her nauseated. She got up and stumbled out of her bedroom and down the hall to her bathroom. She turned on the light to the toilet and closed the door behind her, kneeling down to vomit into the bowl.

When she'd finished, she sighed and stood up, catching sight of a small trickle of red rolling down her left leg. If her coughing and vomiting into the toilet hadn't woken the other residents of the main house, then her subsequent shrieking definitely did.

It only took a few moments for maids to rush out and over to her, all the lights in the house being turned on in a frenzy along the way.

"Akito, what's wrong?" One of the older maids asked, gently resting a hand on the young god's back.

Akito frowned and stepped away from the maid before slapping her hard across the cheek. "Don't talk to me like that. I'm not your friend." She spat.

"Forgive her, Lord Akito, she's too tired to be in her right senses." Another maid said quickly to calm Akito's anger.

"Or she's just stupid, whatever excuse works." Akito sneered.

"My lord, what's wrong? Why did you scream?" The second maid asked, having grown used to the twelve-year-old's temper.

"I'm bleeding out with no sign of stopping. Get me Hatori."

"Hatori's very busy as a pre-med student. Surely another doctor would work? We could call an ambulance and have someone arrive right away."

"No, I want Hatori. He's never too busy for me, anyways. His world revolves around me."

The maid sighed, knowing there was no use in trying to persuade the young head at that point. "Very well, we'll call for him. Until then, why don't we stop up the wound, at least temporarily, so you don't bleed all over until he gets here?"

"No."

"May I ask my lord why not?"

"Because I don't know where the wound is." Akito said softly, casting her gaze down to her feet, noticing the trickle still flowing down her leg and the side of her pale ankle.

The maid noticed the trickle as well while another maid went to call Hatori in the other room. "It looks like it's coming from your leg. May I check?"

Akito nodded, letting the maid gently push up the bottom of her sleeping yukata. The maid pushed up and up until the robe had been gathered at her hip and the source of the blood seemed lie within her boxer briefs. The maid quickly dropped the yukata, glancing around to make sure no one else had seen.

"My lord, if you'll come with me. I know what this is and I can help clean you up." The maid said calmly.

Akito nodded and followed after her as she got a clean pair of boxer briefs that had been drying on the line. The maid then led her into another bathroom where she got something wrapped up in thin yellow plastic. The maid unwrapped the yellow thing, revealing what looked like the bottom part of a diaper. She stuck it inside the clean boxer briefs like a weird sticker before looking up at Akito again.

"Here, step out of your old boxers and into these. We can have the old ones cleaned for you." The maid instructed.

Akito blinked and decided to do as she was told rather than snap at the maid for telling her what to do. She pulled the clean boxers on and shifted a bit at the odd feeling of the diaper-like sticker inside of them.

"Hatori's on his way, sir. He'll be here in a few minutes." Another maid said from the doorway while the other cleaned the blood on Akito's leg for her.

Akito just nodded. "Is there ibuprofen in here? My stomach hurts really bad."

The maid nodded and finished cleaning off her leg. She then went to a medicine cabinet and brought out a bottle.

"I can't take that! Are you stupid?" Akito spat when she noticed the label on the bottle.

"It's ibuprofen, sir." The maid tried calmly.

"Ibuprofen for women, maybe. It won't work the same on me."

The maid blinked at that and silently decided not to fight it and got out another bottle of regular ibuprofen for the young god. She shook out two pills and got a small glass of water, handing them over.

Akito swallowed the pills down with the water and gave the cup back to the maid before heading back to her bedroom to wait for Hatori tiredly. As promised, it didn't take him long to arrive.

Hatori listened as one of the maids explained everything to him as he took off his shoes. "He woke up stomach pains and… bleeding? Did you give him any medicine yet?"

"Yes, I gave him regular ibuprofen. I tried to give him Bufferin Luna, but he saw the label and lost it. Evidently it wouldn't work as well on him." The maid replied honestly, shaking her head a bit.

Hatori looked up at the woman at that. "Well, I guess home schooling only does so much. He really needs to get out more often, but the moment he does, his body will probably shut itself down." He sighed. "Is he in his bedroom?"

"Yes, he's waiting for you."

"Alright. Does he know anything about what's happening?"

"No, Ren told his tutors to keep health education don't-ask-don't-tell."

Hatori sighed and shook his head. "Alright. You'd might as well make us some tea, then. I'll probably be here for a while."

"Alright. I'm sorry you had to be called here at two in the morning for this. You probably have classes tomorrow and your studies to worry about." The maid said to him.

"It's fine. If I don't tell Akito all of this, who will? Besides, I can just down a cup or two of coffee if I need it." Hatori said with a shrug before walking down the hall to Akito's bedroom. He knocked on the wood of the sliding door before pushing it open. His fatigue suddenly stopped mattering when the girl waiting in the room looked over and smiled at him.

"Hatori." Akito hummed happily, hugging her older cousin as he came in and sat with her.

"Hey, Akito. Not sleeping too well, huh?" Hatori replied, letting her climb onto his lap as she always had when she was a little girl.

"No, not at all. Did the maid tell you everything?"

"Yeah, she did. "

"Good, then you can help me get it bandaged. All she did was give me a diaper sticker."

"Actually, she did everything that you really can do for this. What she gave you was called a pad, because this is a kind of bleeding you can't just stop with pressure and a band-aid."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, what you're experiencing is called a 'menstrual cycle' or, more commonly, a 'period.' It's completely normal and happens to every woman in the world."

"Why's it happening to me, then?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you just said that it happens to every woman in the world. So, why is it happening to me?"

Hatori blinked in shock at that. "Akito, do you think you're a boy or a girl?"

Akito paused at the question and thought it over for a bit. "Well, I'm pretty sure Papa always used to call me his 'little girl' or 'daughter' or something like that. But, I can't remember it exactly. Everyone else calls me a boy, though. All the maids, all of you, literally everyone. The entire world can't be lying to me. So, maybe I'm just remembering wrong. If everyone says I'm a boy, then I must be a boy."

Hatori sighed and gently started to rub her back. He made a mental note to never raise his own children as Akito had been, if he ever had children. "When you were born, Akito, you were born a girl. As per your mother's wish, however, you were brought up as a boy. I don't know why she'd choose to do such a thing, but she did. The only people who know otherwise are myself, Kureno, Shigure, Ayame, Ren, the maid who helped you just a few minutes ago, and the midwives who were at your birth. In short, you're a little girl whom everyone believes is a little boy. Now, you're twelve years old and you've started transitioning into an adult woman. You've started puberty, do you know what that is?"

"Kind of. It's when you get pimply and gross for a while, right?"

"Yes. If you keep eating well and wash your face every night, though, you can avoid the pimples. As a girl, you'll grow a bit taller, your voice might get higher, you'll develop breasts and wider hips, and you'll get hair starting to grow under your arms, on your legs, and on your pubic region. Plus, you've gotten your first menstrual cycle."

"Okay. So, what's the menstrual cycle do, then? Am I just bleeding for fun?"

"No, your uterus is shedding its lining and it's passing through your vagina and out of your body. This means that, technically, your body is capable of carrying and delivering a baby now. Every month, your uterus lines itself and waits a while. If, at the end of the cycle, the egg cell prepared isn't fertilized and embedded in the lining of the uterus, it sheds the lining to prepare a new one. Basically, your body finds out that you're not pregnant, and cleans out everything to get it all ready and fresh again, just in case you get pregnant the next month around."

"So, I could have babies now?" Akito asked softly, her nose wrinkled at the thought.

"It's possible, yes, but not at all a good idea. Your body might have a menstrual cycle now, but you're not nearly mentally or physically ready to have heirs yet. Don't worry, I think you've got a good eight to ten years before people start pushing you to reproduce. If this were medieval times, you might be pushed into a marriage and having kids now, but that's how people die in childbirth, and times have changed quite a bit. Most Japanese women don't have kids until they're in their thirties these days." Hatori replied to her with a small smile, glad she was taking all the new information well. He figured if her tutors could just teach her more than the things she had to know to run a company, she could be an extremely intelligent young girl.

Akito relaxed and nodded. "How do people get pregnant, then? You said the egg has to embed in the uterus, right? How does it know to do that?"

"Well, women have egg cells that contain half the DNA and chromosomes needed to make another human. These samples of DNA all come from you. That's how children get to look so much like their parents. Men, then, have sperm cells that contain the other half of DNA and chromosomes needed. The sperm fertilizes the egg and then pushes it up into the uterus. Once the fertilized egg is embedded in the uterus, that's conception, and the woman is pregnant. This generally happens as a result of sexual intercourse." Hatori replied to her easily.

"What's sexual intercourse?" She asked curiously.

"You can ask your health tutor about that."

"Alright. How do the babies get each trait from their parents? I mean, if a baby gets half it's DNA from its mother and half from its father, why do people always say I look exactly like Ren? Why don't I look half like Ren and half like Papa?"

"That's a great question, and more of one for a geneticist. Some genes that are passed down are dominant and some are recessive. For example, you got straight black hair like your mother, while your father had dark brown, almost curly hair. Your mother's gene for straight black hair must have been dominant while your father's hair was recessive. So, your mother's gene won out and was passed along to you."

Akito listened and took it all in, looking up when the maid walked in with fresh tea for the two of them. She watched as Hatori took a book out of his bag while they were served the tea, looking over the pages as he showed her the pages and pictures and examples of Punnett squares to show her generally how genetics could be calculated. The girl listened and sipped her tea, growing more and more sleepy all the while.

"Hatori?"

"Yes, Akito?"

"How long do periods usually last?"

"On average, they last between three to seven days and happen once a month."

"I might bleed for seven days straight?"

"There's a possibility, yes."

Akito paused at the thought and sighed. "I'm going to bed."

Hatori grinned and laughed, letting her crawl off his lap and curl up in her futon once again.

"Good night, Akito." He said, tucking her in once again and kissing her forehead.

"Good night, Hatori." She yawned, falling asleep before he could pack his things and leave the room.


	2. Chapter 2

There was something about her reflection in the mirror that made Akito want to stand and stare, as well as turn away and silently resolve never to look into that particular mirror ever again as if it had wronged her. Her body, which had always been rather straight and could pass as boyish was starting to change, regardless of whether she wanted it to or not. The changes were faint, but the more she looked, the more obvious they felt.

She traced her fingers lightly over her face. Her cheeks still felt soft, like a baby's, though there were small raised bumps along her jawline and chin.

'Hormones,' Hatori had said with an easy shrug. Apparently, everyone got them, especially during puberty. They would go away if she kept her face clean and washed it every morning and night. She hoped he was right. It was hard for anyone to take someone seriously when they had the ugly little bumps across their face.

Just out of curiosity, she examined her teeth. In a few days, she'd have to get her wisdom teeth removed since they had recently started to bother her and cause some pain. None of the maids wanted to tell her why those particular teeth were causing her pain. They all said that it would just be useless knowledge that would clutter her head. She had more important things to focus on, after all. Not knowing about these mysterious teeth only made her mind wander to them further, though.

She closed her mouth and sighed softly through her nose. She traced her fingers over her lips absently. She wasn't yet sure how she felt about that feature of her body. On one hand, they were nothing like the lips she always saw in magazine ads and on TV. The girls in those always had soft pink lips that were small and dainty. Hers were fuller and seemed to be a more beige color, which often made her wonder if there was a reason why she didn't often see models, actresses, or even idol girls with lips like hers. On the other hand, though, Shigure always told her how much he loved them. He often said they were like a fully bloomed rose.

'You shouldn't compare yourself to those girls on TV or in magazines, Aki,' He would croon while holding her in his lap like a child. 'They're all either caked in makeup or so photoshopped they're barely human anymore. Probably even both. They're not real at all. You're very real and you're going to be drop-dead gorgeous when you're done growing.'

Shigure always treated her like a child. Why she always put up with it, she was never sure.

Her fingers trailed down her jaw until she let her hands fall back down to her sides. Well, just staring and zoning out into the mirror wouldn't get her ready for the day any faster. Finally, she tore her attention over to the clothes hanging up for her to wear for the day. While her tutor would be coming that morning, she had a meeting at lunch with some men from the family's company, and no time to change between the two. So, she would be forced to spend the morning in the uncomfortable suit that had been prepared for her instead of the kimono she'd rather be wearing.

She frowned once she'd finished tucking her shirt into her pants. At fourteen years old, her body was still growing, but her figure was developed just enough to be just slightly evident under the white cotton.

A knock on the door interrupted her train of thought.

"Sir? Your tutor is here." A maid called through the door. "Will you be much longer, sir?"

 _Stupid bitch. Why didn't she tell me sooner when he'd be here?_ Akito glowered at the door. She shifted her thoughts back to the problem, or problems, at hand. The tutor would be expecting a boy, and wouldn't know any better. In her usual kimonos, she could wear the top loosely and cover herself with a jacket to hide anything that might raise suspicions. Whoever had picked out the suit for her was obviously an idiot. The shirt was much too slim-fitting.

"No, I'll be right out." She called back, pulling on the suit jacket and relaxing a bit when she found that it hung just shapelessly enough to conceal any parts of her torso she wanted to. With that, she finally left the bathroom, coming face to face with the maid on the other side of the sliding door.

"Find whoever chose my clothes for today and tell them to report to me later. Next time I'm expecting someone, you will alert me shortly before they arrive. Now I'm late, and it's all your fault. If you're too much of an idiot to handle that much, then find someone who can." She spat, walking past the maid and down the long hallways of the main house.

"Yes, sir. I'm very sorry, sir." The maid replied, lowering her gaze respectfully.

Akito paid her no mind and kept walking down the wooden hallways, before stopping at one of the sliding doors and letting herself into the room. The room wasn't a big one. It was a plain, mostly unfurnished room, that could be used for almost anything. The floors were tatami, and there was a single low table set up in the middle that could easily be moved if need be. Usually, that room was used for her lessons, small meetings, or as a guest room.

The tutor was already sitting on one side of the table, materials spread out across the wood.

"Excuse me," Akito said as she stepped into the room.

"Good morning, Sohma." The tutor replied, standing up to greet her respectfully.

Akito's relationship with her tutors had always been a weird one, though it was much weirder when she was a child. On one hand, the tutors were her elders, and were her authority figures, within the context of education. However, she was the head of a very large, very wealthy and influential family. They'd decided that it would be easiest for the tutor to be superior, but only while they were having lessons. If she ever saw the tutor on the street, or outside of their lessons, she was superior.

She sat down at the other side of the table, her own notebooks already in a stack on the side.

"We're going to start with English today." The tutor said.

She nodded and pulled the corresponding notebook from the stack, opening it up to her last page of notes. English was her best subject, but only in writing. Her tutor was an Englishman, and was very strict about her accent, and was hardly ever pleased when she tried to speak the language.

That particular lesson was heavily focused on speaking practice, which made it feel like it lasted for years.

"'It is a truth…. u-uni-universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.'" She read aloud haltingly.

"'It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.'" The tutor repeated, much smoother. "Say it like that."

"'It is a truth yoo-niversally acknowledged, that a single man in possess-in of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.'" She repeated, trying to copy the sounds he'd made when saying the words.

"That's better. Read the next quote on the sheet." The tutor said.

Akito sighed and did as she was told. She must have gone over all those quotes on the two-sided sheet of paper a hundred times before the tutor finally decided to move on.

The lessons only lasted until noon, but they felt like an eternity. At noon, Akito ate a small lunch, and at about one, the businessmen started to show up. Akito excused herself to the bathroom, telling the maids to let the businessmen into the meeting room and that she'd meet them in there.

After washing her hands, she splashed water onto her face to wake herself up. Then, she walked back down the long hallways of the main house.

The thing with old, traditional Japanese style homes like the main house, was that a lot of the doors and walls were made of paper. There weren't a lot of secrets that couldn't pass through to unwelcome ears.

"Taking orders and answering to a little boy, what a joke." One of the older men griped. "It's demeaning."

"You'd think a family like the Sohma's could have lined up a sort of regent to act long after his father died. These people seem so stupid, it's a wonder they still have any money left." Another agreed.

Akito stopped outside the sliding door, letting the old wood creak underneath her feet to announce her presence for them. The men were suddenly quiet when she slid the door open.

"Sohma, it's good to meet you, sir." One man said as they all stood up respectfully to her.

Akito looked up at the man. He must have been the newer American worker, who'd taken over as the financer. She didn't recognize his voice from the group of disgruntled old men.

"It's good to meet you, too. McDonald, was it?" She replied politely, bowing her head lightly in reply to him.

"Yes, sir. Like the fast-food chain." The man replied with a smile. "Oh! Here, I read online that giving gifts was normal when going to someone's house for the first time here."

Akito blinked as the man held a small bag out to her. "Oh, thank you, but I can't accept something like that."

"No, I insist." He replied, pushing it out towards her again.

"Alright, thank you." She replied, taking the bag with both hands. She looked inside and pulled out an AKB48 CD.

"The shopkeeper told me all young men your age like them," McDonald said with a happy grin.

"Thank you, it's wonderful," Akito replied politely, wondering why the man couldn't have just bought an orange basket or something basic. She set the bag against a wall and moved to sit down at the head of the meeting table, keeping her back straight and head high to seem bigger than she was.

As the meeting got started, a maid came in quietly and poured out tea for everyone around the table. The meeting went without interruption until about halfway through when a maid quietly slipped inside and knelt down next to her.

"Sir, Shigure's asking for you. What should I tell him?" She asked.

"Tell him to wait for me, and to get a better sense of timing," Akito replied before turning her attention back to the meeting.

When the meeting was over, she found Shigure sitting on the veranda of her bedroom, swinging his legs off the side. She felt her heart rate increase when he turned around and gave her that wide, familiar grin. She walked over to sit down next to him on the veranda.

"So, I need a better sense of timing, huh?" He asked, turning to face her.

"Yes, you do. You always come when I'm at my busiest." She replied with a nod. "It seems to be a talent of yours."

"I'm a man of many talents," Shigure said, wiggling his eyebrows.

"Oh, shut up," Akito said, lightly pushing him with a foot. "Why did you come over today?"

"Because it's a beautiful summer day, you're not that sick right now, and I think you should get out of the house to enjoy it," Shigure replied. "Come on, change into something more weather appropriate, and we'll get ice cream."

"Alright, that doesn't sound too bad." She replied, getting up from the floor to slip back into her room and close the door for privacy while she changed. She didn't have a lot of summer clothes, because she typically didn't go out much in summer. It was always too hot for much and left her feeling sluggish and sweaty. If she could help it, she'd spend every summer day inside, sitting in front of multiple fans.

With nothing much to wear, she kept her black dress pants on and traded the blazer and long-sleeved button-down shirt for a short-sleeved button-down shirt. She smoothed the fabric down before checking her face in a mirror that hung over her dresser. She fussed with her bangs for a bit, finger-combing them straight. Then, she pinched her cheeks to make them look pinker and give herself a more healthy-looking flush.

"Are you almost done? God, you're such a girl." Shigure teased from outside.

"And you're an ass." She called back before opening the door again. "I need to get my shoes. Why don't I meet you out front?"

"It's a plan." He replied, hopping off the veranda to walk around the front of the house.

Akito shut the door again before leaving her room and walking down to the front entrance of the main house.

"Sir? Are you going somewhere?" One of the maids asked.

"Obviously," Akito replied, pulling her shoes on easily

"Will that be good for your health?" the maid asked.

"You're not my doctor, what do you care?" Akito snapped back, standing up and moving to meet Shigure out in the front of the house.

Shigure smiled at her and walked by her side out of the main house and to the entrance of the main estate. "You know, you should get cooler clothes." He commented.

"What's wrong with what I have now?" Akito asked with a small frown.

"Well, for one, you look like a schoolboy. Aki, your wardrobe consists of suits and a bunch of nagajuban that you wear like regular kimono." Shigure replied. "Come on, you're a teenager. Don't you want to dress like a normal teenager?"

"What difference does it make, whether I dress my age or not?" She asked.

"Well, it might help you relate to some of the other Sohma teenagers a bit better. Let's be real here, other than me and Kureno, you don't really have a lot of friends." Shigure replied bluntly.

"I don't have the time or the option to be a child, Shigure, I'm busy," Akito replied with a small sigh.

"I know, and I hate that. You're only fourteen, you should be outside, riding a bike around with friends and enjoying your last year's of childhood." Shigure replied with a frown, looking down at her. "I know you have no other option, but it sucks that your only taste of freedom is when I steal you away like this."

Akito looked up at him and said nothing. All she could think about was how concerned Shigure seemed to be for her. That meant he thought and cared about her.

"Well, it's not like it would matter anyway. Hatori said I'm starting to grow very quickly now, so there's no sense I. Buying a bunch of clothes I won't get much use out of." Akito shrugged. "Shigure? Do you love me?"

Shigure blinked at the question and smiled down at her. "Of course I do. We all love you, Aki."

"Would you love me, even if you had the choice?" She asked. "If there was no curse and you had the choice to love me, would you?"

"Of course I would. You're my family, and I've known you since you were a baby." Shigure replied.

"Just because someone's family, doesn't mean you always have to love them." Akito pointed out.

"Yeah, and you need to stop listening to Ren." Shigure hummed, ruffling her hair. "You know she only ever says stuff to get under your skin and psych you out. Stop paying attention to her."

Akito fell silent at that, knowing full well that he had a valid point. She kept close to him as they walked into the 7-Eleven, one after the other. She followed Shigure back to the drink coolers and the little freezer full of ice cream.

"There's too many to choose from." Shigure lamented. "What kind do you want, Aki?"

"Don't call me Aki in public," Akito replied, grabbing a strawberry mochi ice cream and handing it over to Shigure.

"Sure thing, Little Aki," Shigure replied.

Akito glowered and hit the backside of his head. Shigure just laughed and grabbed a mango mochi ice cream for himself. He got a couple bottles of water from a beverage cooler and walked up to the front counter to pay.

Akito got momentarily distracted by a magazine next to the checkout till that displayed a couple of young women on the front. The girls both had porcelain skin, straight dark hair, big eyes, and even bigger breasts. She looked back over at Shigure before she could think about how different she looked compared to them.

"I can pay." She said when he handed the money over in the tray.

"No, it's fine, Aki. I just got the royalty check from my first book anyways." Shigure replied, taking the change from the cashier.

"Oh, that's right. You got your book published." She hummed, taking her bottle of water and ice cream from the counter and walking out with Shigure to eat sitting down on a nearby public bench.

"Yep! They're already saying I should start working on another one." Shigure hummed as he started to work on opening his bottle of water.

Akito watched him struggle with the bottle until it finally cracked open, spilling on his shirt in the process. She smiled and laughed behind her hand, only laughing more when he took a bit of water on his fingers and flicked it at her in retaliation.

"See how it feels?" He asked with a grin, wrapping an arm around her shoulders to hug her tightly while ruffling her hair even further.

Had it been anyone else, Akito might have berated them for treating her like a child. However, with Shigure it was different. Perhaps it was because she'd chosen him as a favorite. Perhaps it had something to do with the way he made her heart rate pick up. She couldn't really be sure.

She opened up her ice cream and started to eat it, letting it cool her down on that hot summer day. She relaxed in the comfortable silence while eating and drinking next to Shigure and just watching the other people of the town wander about and go about their daily business.

After a little bit, she glanced up at Shigure, catching him looking across the street at someone. She followed his gaze over to a pair of older girls, walking and talking with shopping bags on their arms. They both looked relatively normal, compared to the models on the covers of magazines, but they were both still very pretty. Akito wondered what she'd look like if she had long hair and wore breezy, floral sundresses like the two girls across the street. Probably not very good.

She adjusted her shirt a bit, self-consciously pulling it away from her chest. The more she looked like a boy, the fewer people would compare her to other girls. When she went back to eating, she noticed Shigure looking over at her.

"What's wrong?" She asked with a small frown.

"Did you use bandages to, uh, flatten yourself?" Shigure asked, keeping his voice low and quiet.

"Is this shirt that transparent?" Akito asked with a frown.

"When the sunlight hits it just right, yeah," Shigure replied. "Aki, I wish you wouldn't do that. I'm no doctor, but I'm pretty sure that's not safe."

"Well, what do you suggest, then?" She asked with a frown.

"I don't know. Not that. Those bandages are meant to hold things down and in place. Your chest needs to move to breathe, and those might make it hard." He replied, frowning in return. "Talk to Hatori for other options, maybe he'd know. But there's got to be better ones."

Akito sighed and just went back to eating her ice cream. "What I do to conceal myself is none of your business. Stop butting in where you're not wanted."

"I just want to make sure you're safe, that's all," Shigure said, keeping his voice gentle.

"You're not my brother, you're not my father, you're not my doctor. You're just a big, stupid mutt. So, stop telling me what to do." Akito snapped back, throwing her ice cream wrapper at his face before getting up from the bench. "Come on, we're going home."

Shigure just nodded and got up from the bench obediently, walking the girl back to the main estate.


	3. Chapter 3

Akito downed what felt like the thousandth dose of cold medicine that week. With the colder winter weather came the common cold, and it seemed to bring it along every year, without fail. Like a relative with a lackluster Christmas gift, and when you thanked them with a smile just to be polite, they thought the gift had truly been appreciated. So, they gave the same gift every year. And every year, came the same forced smile and 'thank you.' And the cycle continued on.

Akito coughed and groaned as she lay back on her bed. Outside, she could hear some of the Sohma children playing. Evidently, Haru had lobbed a snowball at the back of Yuki's head and thought it was very funny. Yuki failed to see any humor in the situation. Any other day, Akito would have gone to the window or veranda to tell the children to quiet down or play somewhere else. However, today she couldn't bring herself to move that far out of the warmth and comfort of her bed.

"Will you need anything else, sir?" The maids asked after pouring out a cup of green tea with honey to soothe Akito's throat, meanwhile moving to help her sit up in her bed and give her yet another layer to wear as if the heated blanket and multiple space heaters in the room weren't doing enough.

"Can you pass me the phone?" Akito asked, pointing over to the landline that may just out of her reach.

The maid nodded and brought the phone over dutifully.

"Thank you. That's all for now." Akito said without looking at the servant. She punched in the numbers she knew like the back of her hand and put the phone to her ear, listening as the other line rang.

After a few more rings, the other line picked up.

"To what do I owe the pleasure, Akito?" Shigure drawled.

Akito hated how she could practically hear him smiling.

"I'm bored. You're not busy, are you?" She replied.

"Actually, the thing with college is that they tend to keep you extremely busy," Shigure replied dryly.

"You're going to college for literature and writing. It's not like you're pre-med like Hatori." Akito replied, reaching over to the spoon in her tea and swirling it around absently.

"Rude. I'll have you know I'm extremely busy, What with all the readings and writings I need to do."

"Right. Well, you should come over here."

"Should I?"

"Just come over."

"Do I hear a 'Pleeeeaaasssssseee Shigure? I'll be your best friend?'"

Akito rolled her eyes, the corners of her mouth lifting up. "Shut up. Just come over here."

Shigure laughed. "I'll see you in about five minutes."

Akito smiled as they hung up. She sipped her tea and waited the few long minutes in relative silence. As a sort of fanfare for his arrival, Akito overheard some of the children outside calling to Shigure to play with them.

"Next time, Haru, pinky swear. I shouldn't keep Akito waiting." Shigure called back to the boy.

"You're more of a chicken than a dog." Harsuharu taunted.

"I'm gonna remember you said that, Haru. Then you're going to learn the true meaning behind the old adage, 'Karma's a bitch.'" Shigure replied.

A few moments after the conversation died down, there was a knock on her door before it slid open.

"Shigure," Akito said as the other man walked into the room.

"Good afternoon, Aki. God, it's toasty in here. Are those maids trying to cook you alive or something?" Shigure replied, taking mental note of the numerous heaters in the room.

"They think it'll make my cold go away faster," Akito replied with a small smile.

"They'd be better off just replacing your immune system entirely, I think. You're gonna get a fever being this hot." Shigure said, shaking his head and turning all but one heater off.

"If I don't have one already." Akito agreed.

"How long have you had this cold?" Shigure asked, walking over to press the back of his hand to her forehead. "It doesn't feel like you're any warmer than usual."

"It's been a few days now. Apparently the common cold warrants confinement to a bed now." Akito sighed.

"Knowing your body, it might." Shigure hummed. "So, why'd you call me over here? Bored?"

"Painfully," Akito admitted.

"Okay." Shigure hummed, sitting down on the floor next to her futon. "Why don't we play a game, then?"

"What did you have in mind?"

"It's called Truth or Dare. I saw it in an American movie a little bit ago and I looked cool."

"How do you play?"

"Well, we'll do rock, paper, scissors, and whoever wins gets to ask the other person 'Truth or Dare' first. If they say 'Truth', then you'll ask them any question and they have to answer truthfully. If they say 'Dare', then they have to do whatever you say."

"This sounds fake. I think you made all of that up."

"I swear to you I didn't. I would never lie to you, Aki."

Akito hesitated for a moment before sighing and nodding. "Okay, we can play for a little bit."

Shigure smiled at that and held out one fist. Akito moved her tea out of the way to avoid spilling it and put her own fist out. Akito held out scissors, Shigure with rock.

Shigure smiled at the little victory. "Truth or Dare, Aki?"

Unsure how far Shigure would go right away, Akito decided to play it safe. "Truth."

"Ummm…. have you ever had a crush on anyone?" Shigure asked.

Akito blinked at the question. She felt her cheeks warm slightly. "Yes." She replied honestly.

"Really? Oh my god, who is it?" Shigure asked eagerly.

"You only get one question per Truth, you know," Akito replied.

"Ahh, you're right. Okay, I'll back off." Shigure chuckled. "For now."

Akito rolled her eyes and put her fist back out. Shigure did the same. She threw rock that time, and he threw scissors.

"My turn, then. Truth or dare?" Akito asked.

"Truth," Shigure replied after a moment of thought.

"Have you ever had a girlfriend? I mean, a serious one." Akito asked.

"No, not really," Shigure replied.

Akito blinked. "Really?"

"Well, the more serious a relationship gets, the more intimate they get. The curse makes that sort of thing hard. With girls, at least." Shigure shrugged.

"Oh, I guess that does make sense," Akito said softly before taking a sip of her tea.

Akito won the next round of rock, paper, scissors.

"You said it's hard to get intimate with girls with the curse still in place. Have you ever gotten intimate with another man, then?" She asked.

It was Shigure's turn to blink in surprise. The shock quickly faded into a smile and a small chuckle. "Cunning girl. Yeah, I've been with another man before."

"Are you gay? I don't really care either way, I'm just curious."

"Hey, hey, whatever happened to 'one question per truth?'"

"Fine." Akito sighed, sticking her fist back out in front of her. Shigure did the same. They tied about three times until Shigure eventually won.

"Truth or dare?" He asked.

"Truth."

"Who do you have a crush on?" Shigure asked with a grin.

Akito paused for a second, feeling her face start to burn red. "Dare."

"No, you can't back out now, Aki!" Shigure laughed. "Come on, who's your crush? Your schoolgirl fantasy?"

"I'm eighteen now. I'm not that much of a schoolgirl anymore." Akito replied.

"You're evading the question, Aki."

Akito belt her face get even warmer. Shigure's dark eyes felt more intense than playful as he held her gaze expectantly. She felt like her heart was beating so hard it would stop at any minute. She looked away from him and started to fiddle with the sleeves of her nagajuban.

"You, um, you don't know him." She lied.

"You're not a good liar, Aki."

Akito looked back over again. He was still watching her with that same intensity, a small cocky smile playing on his lips. She swallowed.

"It's you." She said softly, looking down at her hands. He voice was barely over a whisper.

"Huh? What's that? I can't hear you."

"I said you're an asshole." Akito snapped.

"I know I am. Who's your crush, Aki?" Shigure asked, grinning from ear to ear.

"It's you, alright? Is that what you wanted to hear, you pompous son of a bitch?" Akito snapped back, her face burning bright red.

Shigure smiled even wider at that. "Whoa, me? You have a crush on me? That's embarrassing." He laughed.

"Shut up. Oh my god, just shut up." Akito groaned, covering her face with her hands.

"God, you're so cute." Shigure laughed, moving to sit next to her on her bed and trying to pull her hands away from her face.

"Don't mock me." She replied, letting him grab her wrists and pull her hands away from her face.

"I'm not. You're cute, Aki, both as a boy and a girl." Shigure said, holding onto her wrists.

Akito said nothing for a couple moments. "Truth or dare?"

"Truth."

"Are you gay?"

"I'm bisexual."

Akito nodded and felt something in her chest relax. Her heart was still pounding.

"Truth or dare, Aki?" Shigure asked.

"Truth," Akito replied quietly.

"How long have you had a crush on me?"

"A few years now. I'm surprised you haven't noticed."

"I was never known for being the top of my class." Shigure laughed. "Truth or dare?"

"You don't get two in a row."

"Why not? We're more talking than playing the game now, anyway."

Akito sighed. "Dare."

"Kiss me."

Akito's blush returned with a vengeance. "What?"

"I said, 'Kiss me.'"

"Now you are mocking me." Akito huffed.

"No, I'm not." Shigure laughed, moving his hands down from her wrists to hold onto her hands. It was a wonder how small they were in his own. "Kiss me, Aki. Please? Or, may I kiss you?"

"I've never kissed anyone before," Akito said softly.

"I'd be honored to be your first," Shigure replied.

Akito remained quiet before making eye contact with Shigure again and nodding.

Shigure moved his hands from holding hers up to hold her face. They rested under her jaw and held her cheeks. Then, he moved closer, and closer, and closer. His eyes shut just before he pressed his lips against hers.

Akito finally let her eyes slip shut. Her hands went up to hold onto Shigure's kimono. Shigure's lips were warm and soft, warmer and softer than she ever could have imagined. They tasted like the cherry chapstick he must have put on before walking out into the cold winter air. The smell of his skin filled her senses, leaving her feeling lightheaded. He smelled like the pages of an old book, mixed with the tobacco from his cigarettes. He smelled like he'd put on cologne that morning, too, but it was starting to wear away.

The first soft, gentle little kiss was followed by another one, and then another one. After a few more, they started getting less shy and the kisses began to last a little longer. After a few of the longer kisses, Shigure slotted their lips together and started to gently suck at Akito's bottom lip. Akito only finally pulled away when she felt Shigure's tongue brush against her own.

They both were breathing heavily after the kisses. Shigure pressed his forehead against Akito's, smiling widely at her.

"Was your first kiss any good, then?" He asked softly.

"I'd say so," Akito replied with a nod, feeling herself start to smile, too. Part of her wishes she could stay like that with him forever. There'd be no curse, and she'd have a better immune system, and they could just sit and snuggle and kiss each other with nothing else to worry about. They could keep each other warm.

"Shigure?" Akito asked softly as Shigure started to happily nuzzle his nose into her neck and rest his head on her shoulder.

"Yeah, Aki?" Shigure asked, resisting every urge in his body to start kissing her bare neck. Everything in him was telling him to show her how much he loved his god, and the only way he knew how to translate that love was into the physical. But after only just having her first kiss, Akito probably wouldn't want to go that far that fast.

"What do I smell like to you?" She asked.

"Hmmm…." Shigure hummed as he buried his nose into her neck, trying to get a handle on the scent. "It's floral. And sweet, like amaretto."

"What's amaretto?" Akito asked, her hand moving to start playing with Shigure's hair. It was thick and soft between her fingers.

"It's a type of Italian liquor. I'll bring some next time I come over."

"I'm not twenty yet, though."

"That's why it'll be our little secret." Shigure hummed, winding his arms around her waist to hug her close. He frowned a bit at how tiny she was in his arms. It felt like he could snap the girl like a twig. She was just small enough around for it to be scary.

Akito hummed as Shigure hugged her close. "Alright. I just hope you're not a loud drunk."

"I think I can hold my liquor better than you any day, Aki. You've got to be ninety pounds soaking wet." Shigure hummed. "I wonder what kind of drunk you'd be. Probably a loud, mean one."

Akito rolled her eyes. "I'm sure I won't be much different drunk."

"We'll see about that. I'll bring it tomorrow, and then we'll have some fun." Shigure promised, kissing her neck softly, just once.

"If you say so," Akito replied, continuing to play with Shigure's hair.

Shigure stayed by her side for a little while longer before he finally had to go to do some schoolwork.

"Try not to dream of me too much, Aki." He hummed as he said goodbye to her at the front entrance, much to the dismay of the maids who thought Akito should remain in bed.

"Just put your shoes on and get out of here," Akito replied.

"See you tomorrow, Akito." Shigure chuckled before turning to do as he was told.

Akito watched him leave before the maids all surrounded him to lead her, coughing, back to her bedroom. They gave her another dosage of cold medicine and left her to her thoughts, all of which circled back to Shigure and how he'd kissed her.

If she was honest with herself, she had wanted to go further. She was nervous about it, but she'd wanted it. If the next day, the amaretto made him bold enough to push his tongue into her mouth, she wouldn't mind it.

Just the thought of kissing Shigure harder and going further with him was enough to make her face and body warm up. She'd never seen him in any state of undress before, but she was sure he'd look amazing, especially if he was undressed and on top of her, looking down at her with those intense eyes and that shit-eating grin.

When Shigure came over the next day, it was already late in the afternoon and the sun had started to set in the winter sky.

Akito looked up from a book she'd been reading when she heard something rapping against the paper door that opened up to the veranda of her bedroom. She got up from her spot under the warmth of the kotatsu, sliding open the door.

"Shigure? Why are you coming in this way?" She asked.

"I'm not, but the alcohol is." Shigure replied, pulling a bottle of amaretto and a couple of glasses from his messenger bag and holding them up to Akito. "If the maids catch me bringing this, they'll get all pissy. It's safer to sneak it in."

Akito took the alcohol and glasses. "I suppose that makes sense. Now go to the front like normal before someone catches you."

Shigure nodded and Akito watched him start the trek around the main house to find the front entrance. She slid the door shut again and shivered from the cold, setting the amaretto and the glasses down on the kotatsu.

Shigure wasted no time getting back to her bedroom and rapping on the door politely before letting himself inside.

"Let's get this party started, I've had a long day." He said, settling down at the kotatsu next to Akito.

Akito nodded and grabbed the bottle, starting the attempt at taking off the lid.

"Here, let me," Shigure said after watching the way her brow furrowed in concentration.

"I can do it." Akito insisted, swatting his hand away.

After trying at the lid for another few moments, she sighed and passed the bottle over to Shigure. He just smiled and opened the bottle with relative ease.

"There we go. Don't feel bad, it was cute watching you try." Shigure hummed as he poured out the amber liquid into the two glasses.

"Shut up." Akito huffed, her cheeks warming from embarrassment.

Shigure just grinned and passed her her glass he then took his own and raised it.

"Here we go, Aki's first drink. To your health."

"Wow, funny," Akito replied, nevertheless clinking her glass against Shigure's and hesitantly taking one experimental sip.

The amber liquid was sweet and tasted like almonds. She could definitely taste the alcohol in it, though.

"Good, isn't it? This stuff could be dangerous." Shigure hummed as he sipped his drink contently.

"It is good, actually." Akito agreed, going back to drinking the sweet liquor until her glass had been emptied.

"Here, I brought us bread and water. The last thing I want is for you to get super sick." Shigure hummed, producing a couple of large bottles of water and a loaf of bread from his bag.

Akito nodded and drank some of her water, eating the bread Shigure broke off for her while he poured her another glass.

By the time the second glass had been half emptied, Akito was starting to feel the effects of the alcohol.

"It's so warm in here." She whined, pulling off the coat over her nagajuban. Once it was shed, she went back to the bread and amaretto.

Shigure drank and watched the smaller girl knock back the rest of her drink with shocking, and slightly worrisome, speed. Part of him wanted to see if he could gauge how drunk she was.

"So, what did you do today, Aki?" He asked casually.

"Nothing," Akito replied, drawing out the word a little bit before giggling. "Actually I did do something. I was thinking about you most of the day."

Shigure blinked at the reply, still registering what the girl had said as she grabbed for the bottle to pour out a third glass.

"Me? What about me, Aki? Drink your water." He said.

"You drink your water." Akito retorted before snorting and giggling some more at herself. "What was the question?"

"What were thinking about me?"

"Oh, yeah. I was thinking about how much I want to kiss you again." Akito replied between sips of water. "More than yesterday, I mean. With tongue and everything."

"You mean you want to make out?"

"Yes! That's what it's called!" Akito replied, slapping her hand down on the table.

Shigure smiled at that and downed the rest of his own drink, not sure what he had to lose from the situation.

"Well, come over here, then." He purred, shifting to sit with his legs stretched in front of him then patting his lap.

Akito took one last drink of water before getting up on her knees and moving the short distance over to straddle Shigure's lap. She wound her arms around his neck while he wrapped his around her waist and pressed close to him as they started kissing once again.

Shigure wasted no time deepening the kiss and within seconds was gently pressing and massaging his tongue against hers. His hands started to rub her back and sides. Akito threaded her fingers into Shigure's shaggy hair, pressing herself against him to get as close as possible.

She wasn't sure if it was the alcohol in her system or the sensually overwhelming kiss, but she soon felt warm all over, including a new warmth that seemed to have blossomed at her hips. Without much thought, she shifted to sit on one of Shigure's thighs and started to rock her hips back and forth on top of it, grinding down just a little bit.

She moaned into the kiss before Shigure grabbed her hips to hold her still and pulled away from the kiss.

"Gure, I need you," Akito whined, her hands moving to grab at the fabric of his kimono.

"Are you one hundred percent sure you want this, Aki? You need to be one hundred percent sure." Shigure replied, moving one hand from her hips to start running his fingers through her silky black hair.

"Yes, I'm positive." Akito nodded, leaning down to kiss his lips that were still pink from the last round of kisses.

Shigure kissed her back warmly and moved his hands around to her back to set to work on the puzzle that was tying the tight knot of her obi. When he finally got it, he tossed it aside and slid the white nagajuban off of Akito's shoulders, so she was left sitting on his lap in her underwear and the bandages around her chest.

He wasted no time with the bandages, removing them quickly. He frowned softly at the way Akito's breathing seemed to come easier once the bandages were gone. His worries didn't last long, though, before his attention strayed to the new pair of breasts in front of him.

"May I?" He asked softly.

"Go ahead," Akito replied.

In an instant, his hands were cupping her breasts. He felt at her soft skin, keeping every touch gentle as if he might break her if he wasn't careful enough.

"You're gorgeous." He breathed.

Akito felt her face flush bright red at the words. It was strange that she'd get embarrassed from a sentimental comment, but not by the man who'd started to roll her nipples between his thumbs and forefingers.

Shigure crooned her name like it was a song and moved his mouth to her shoulder to start kissing down her body, kissing and worshipping every inch of skin he had access to. He only took a break to clear off the top of the kotatsu, then lift Akito up and set her down to sit on top of the table. He kissed down her belly to her waist and then moved the kisses down to her feet and ankles, working his way up her shins to her knees, then to the insides of her thighs, traveling higher and higher until finally his mouth was pressed over the fabric of her underwear between her legs.

His breath and his kisses were warm through the boxer briefs she wore, which made her moan softly and roll her hips forward into his face eagerly.

"Can I take these off?" Shigure asked, gently tugging at the leg of her underwear.

"Yes, but take your clothes off, first. It's embarrassing if I'm the only one completely naked." Akito replied breathlessly.

"Okay, that's fair." Shigure laughed, moving away to untie his own obi and shrug out of his kimono. He pulled a small packet of lube and a condom from his wallet and set them aside.

Akito watched Shigure undress in awe. He was tall and lean with a muscular chest and shoulders. There was a small trail of dark hair that traveled down from his navel and disappeared under his own underwear, but otherwise his skin was completely smooth. She couldn't help herself from reaching up to run her hands over his skin.

Shigure slipped out of his underwear before resting his hands on top of Akito's as they ran over his chest and shoulders. "I'm yours, Aki." He crooned.

"Mine…" Akito agreed, letting him take hold of her hands and kiss her once again.

He only let her hands go so he could pull her own boxer briefs down, letting them fall to the floor with the rest of their clothes. With that, he settled down on the floor and pushed his face back between her legs.

After that, Akito lost track of any sense of time or any aspect of the world that wasn't Shigure Sohma. She didn't know where she ended and Shigure began, and for a while that night, she didn't care enough to find out. One round of making love blended into a second, blended into a third. After a couple of hours, they were both too tired to carry on. So, they finally separated from each other, panting and smiling and peppering kisses over each other's faces.

"I think girls are supposed to go to the bathroom after sex," Shigure said after a few more kisses.

"Really?" Akito asked.

"Yeah. It helps prevent yeast infections, I think." Shigure nodded. "Don't worry, I'll be right here when you get back."

Akito smiled when Shigure held out his pinky to her. She wrapped her own around it and kissed his lips one last time before grabbing one of the kimonos on the floor to cover herself.

It was only when she found it was too large that she realized she'd grabbed Shigure's. It would be troublesome if a maid saw her dressed in Shigure's clothes, but then again, who would dare question her? So, she lifted and folded the kimono at her waist so it wouldn't drag on the floor, then quickly tied the obi around her hips, wearing the top of the kimono loose to conceal any curves she might have.

"Alright, I'll be right back, then," Akito said as Shigure lounged on her futon on the floor.

"Don't fall in." He replied with a grin.

Akito sighed through her nose but smiled to herself as she left. She avoided the maids on her way to the bathroom but nearly ran into one of the older maids on her way out.

"Oh, excuse me, sir." The maid said, politely avoiding eye contact.

"Is that a new kimono, sir? The green looks good on you." A younger maid nearby asked, looking up at him.

"No," Akito replied quickly before leaving to return to her room, completely missing the moment of eye contact the two maids had shared behind her back.

Shigure had tucked himself into her futon while she was away, but was still awake. Akito took the kimono back off and climbed into the bed with him, warming herself under the thick blankets with her new lover's body heat. They fell asleep on their sides, Shigure curled around Akito from behind, his hand wrapped around her to hold her close to himself.


	4. Chapter 4

Akito was used to Shigure coming when she wanted him to. He was usually all too eager to abandon his work at home to come over to her side, and perhaps even spend the night again. So, the one time he declined, it took her aback.

"Sir? Did you hear me?" The maid asked.

"Why does he care about his work now, of all times?" Akito asked with a frown.

"Sir, he is in college, still. He's got exams coming up that he needs to be prepared for." The maid explained.

"Tell him to come anyway," Akito ordered.

The maid looked tired but obediently pressed the phone back to her ear to pass on the message.

"He says he really can't, sir." The maid said.

Akito sighed and got up from the table to take the phone from her.

"What the hell are you playing at? What do you mean you can't come over right now?" She snapped into the phone.

"Hi, Aki. Nice to hear your voice again." Shigure laughed. "I mean exactly that. I have stuff to do, I'm pretty tied up."

"What kind of things do you need to do?" Akito asked. "How long will it take?"

"I need to study for three exams and work on a fifteen-page paper, Aki. It's gonna be an all night thing." Shigure replied. "Hey, if you're that bored and lonely, find Kureno or something. He generally doesn't do much."

"Fine," Akito replied before hanging up the phone and turning to the maid. "Get me Kureno, bring him here."

"Yes, sir." The maid said, bowing respectfully before shuffling out of the room.

Akito sighed and frowned. This wasn't the ideal situation. She'd wanted Shigure more than anyone else, especially Kureno. Though, she figured Kureno wasn't a horrible substitute. The guy did anything she said without questioning her. Shigure seemed to have a hobby of questioning her.

It didn't take long for the maid to return with Kureno in tow.

"Good, leave us," Akito said to the maid, taking Kureno by the arm and pulling him further into her room before sliding the door shut for privacy.

"Akito, what did you need?" Kureno asked, letting the younger girl tug him around as she pleased.

Akito pulled Kureno close by the front of his shirt to press his chest against hers. She sealed his mouth against her own without warning and kissed him deeply. His hands seemed hesitant, but they soon found their place at her waist.

"Will you stay the night?" Akito asked breathlessly, parting just an inch from Kureno's lips.

"Do you want me to?" Kureno asked.

"Yes, I do," Akito replied with a nod.

"Then I will." Kureno decided.

Akito kissed him again and wrapped her arms around his neck. Kureno kept a hold on her waist but gasped a bit when the girl hitched a leg up and wound it around his waist, forcing their hips to press into each other.

"Akito, this is going really fast." Kureno gasped, though holding her leg up by the thigh to help her keep her balance.

"Should I slow down for you?" Akito asked before smirking. "I guess most people usually do."

"Yeah, they usually do." Kureno agreed, not entirely sure what she'd meant by the comment. "Also, I've never actually been with a girl like this before."

"Then I'll tell you what to do," Akito replied, moving to reach behind her back to untie her obi.

"Oh, wait," Kureno said, setting her leg down and gently grabbing her thin wrists. "The window. The window over there's not closed. Someone might see us."

Akito looked over to the circular window and moved away from Kureno just long enough to go over to the window and slide it shut. She momentarily made eye contact with Ren standing out in the courtyard. The woman just smiled at her. Akito shut the window with more force than she meant to.

Kureno walked up behind her and moved to gently start working on untying her obi for her. "This is what you wanted, right? For me to help you get undressed?"

"Yes, that's exactly what I wanted," Akito replied, holding still while Kureno worked the knot loose and untied the obi.

Kureno's hands were gentle as he helped her slip out of her nagajuban. He laid the garment aside and frowned in confusion at the sight of the bandages wound around her chest.

"Are you hurt?" He asked curiously.

"What? Oh, no. These flatten my chest." Akito replied, reaching down to unfasten the bandages and unwrap them.

Kureno stared at her revealing her breasts to him as if it was the most amazing magic trick he'd ever seen. "May I…?" He asked.

"Go ahead," Akito replied.

In an instant, his hands were hesitantly feeling at her chest. Each touch and squeeze was extremely gentle as if he was scared she'd crumble with any sort of pressure. He kissed her again as he ran his hands over her chest, gradually working on mapping out each gentle curve of her body.

Akito went to work on unbuttoning Kureno's shirt before untucking it from his pants and tossing it aside. His chest and shoulders weren't strong as strong as Shigure's, but she could imagine. She wrapped one arm around his back and slid it down to grab his backside.

Kureno gasped and pulled away from the kiss in shock.

"What? Men aren't the only ones with desires, you know." Akito said with a small smile before moving to unbuckle Kureno's belt and push his pants down to pool around his ankles, leaving the two of them wearing nothing other than a pair of boxer briefs.

Akito leaned in to kiss and suck little marks on Kureno's neck. She left a trail of the marks along his neck and down to his collarbones.

"You'll do as I tell you? Do you trust me?" Akito asked.

"Yes, and yes," Kureno replied, holding her close by the waist.

"Great, then lie down on the futon," Akito said.

She watched him do as he was told and made sure he was watching as she pulled her boxer briefs down.

Kureno's eyes were wide and his face was flushed at the sight of her. He kept his eyes on her as she walked over to him before she knelt down and straddled his waist. One of her hands rested on his shoulder while the other went between her legs.

"I'll do most of the hard work tonight. I just need you to do something for me first, alright?" Akito said.

"Okay," Kureno replied, craning his neck to try and see where her hand between her legs had disappeared to, and what exactly it was doing.

Akito smiled and leaned down to whisper her instructions into his ear. Her voice was breathy, and her cheeks were flushed.

Kureno did as he was instructed, much to Akito's delight. The girl stayed on top of him for the night until they were both satisfied. Akito kissed Kureno for the hundredth time as she got off from on top of him.

"Alright, I need to go to the bathroom. You just tie that up and throw it away." She instructed. Her legs were a bit wobbly as she moved to stand up, and Kureno rushed to stand up and support her as she got to her feet.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Kureno asked worriedly.

"I'll be okay. It's just a bit of a workout, that's all." Akito replied before coughing into her elbow.

"Maybe I should come with you," Kureno said, moving to help her pull on her silk robe.

"Would it make you feel better?" Akito asked, tying her robe shut securely.

"It really would," Kureno replied.

"Alright, then put some clothes on."

Kureno nodded and did as he was told quickly before moving to wrap an arm around Akito's waist to support her weight as she walked awkwardly to the bathroom.

"No, no, stay out here. You're not coming in here." Akito said, pushing Kureno back into the hallway after he'd tried to follow her into the bathroom.

Akito walked back to the room with Kureno still holding her steady. They talked softly as they walked together, her arm around his shoulders with his arm around her waist. When they got back to her room, Akito got settled in the futon, leaving plenty of room for Kureno to join her.

He crawled into the bed next to her and let her hold him close and snuggle into him as she fell asleep by his side.

Akito stayed close to Kureno into the morning until she needed to get up to get dressed for the day.

"Kureno, let's do that again tonight." She said as she got up and started to dress in a three-piece suit. "I'll call for you."

"Alright," Kureno replied, pulling his own clothes back on.

With that, they parted ways for the day. Akito took her cold medicine before having to rush off to a morning breakfast and meeting.

Akito found Kureno quickly that evening, more than eager to relieve the stress from the day. Their night went about the same as the previous. However, this time, they were both too entranced with each other to close the window.

In the morning, they ate together before parting ways for the day. As head of the family, Akito had to attend the naming ceremony of a new child that had been born into the Sohma family a week prior. She wasn't sure what Kureno did all day long, but she didn't ever bother to ask.

At the ceremony, the parents of the baby greeted her with deep, formal bows.

"Akito, thank you so much for coming." The mother said as she bounced her newborn son in her arms.

"Thank you for inviting me. This must be him, then?" Akito replied, looking down at the tiny bundle in the woman's arms.

She nodded and smiled as she shifted the baby gently so Akito could see his sleeping face.

Akito blinked. She always seemed to forget exactly how small babies could be. "Oh, he looks so peaceful."

"Like a little angel." The mother agreed. "Would you like to hold him?"

"Are you sure? I don't often handle babies." Akito replied hesitantly.

"You'll be fine. Besides, in a few years, you'll probably become a father, yourself. You need all the experience you can get." The father said with a warm smile.

"A father?" Akito replied, her eyes wide as she took the newborn into her arms. "Oh, that's right. I'll need an heir."

Akito had never really thought about the expectation for her to get married and have at least one suitable heir. Given the fact that her father had died relatively young, many older members of the family were antsy to get her married and see her have an heir. At nearly nineteen, she didn't like thinking about how she'd soon be pushed into marriage if she didn't show signs of looking for a suitable spouse herself. After marriage, would immediately come children. Of course, at some point, before she was married, she'd likely have to reveal herself as a woman to avoid any sort of complications when it came to marriage and children.

She looked down at the newborn baby sleeping in her arms and wondered if her own future child would be that small. It was odd to think about having a child of her own one day.

"I think you'll be a good father someday. He seems to like you." The mother hummed as the baby in Akito's arms turned towards her chest and nuzzled in.

The father snorted and laughed a bit. "Actually, I think he's looking for a nipple." He said, gently taking the child from Akito's arms to give him back to be fed by his mother.

"Oh, god, I'm so sorry!" The mother said, quickly taking her son from his arms to save him from the embarrassing situation.

"If it's any consolation, he tries the same thing with me all the time." The father said with a laugh as the mother left to nurse in private.

"That does help me feel less embarrassed." Akito laughed, fanning her warm face with a hand.

The traditional ceremony proceeded as per usual, with Akito among other members of the family while the parents made the meimeisho to display their son's name, along with the time and date of his birth, and footprint. When the traditional aspects of the ceremony were over, everyone went back to socializing with each other, the new parents, and their son. Akito left after having a rather violent coughing fit into the crook of her elbow, with some older members of the family giving her a mask to wear in case she was contagious before they ushered her back to the main house. She was still coughing as she took her shoes off, so the maids took it upon themselves to call Hatori.

Akito was brought back to her room and was quickly given green tea with honey to soothe her throat. While she'd been out, the maids had cleaned and sterilized everything in the room, so much that it smelled like a hospital. She hated it, but she knew it was a necessary evil.

Since Hatori lived on the inside, it didn't take him more than a few minutes to show up in her doorway.

"I figured it was too good to be true when you didn't have any health problems for a solid week." Hatori sighed, joining her at the low table.

"I hate this as much as you do," Akito replied before dutifully opening her mouth with her tongue raised so he could stick the thermometer underneath it.

"I guess it's good experience for when I actually have my degree." Hatori hummed as he waited for the thermometer. When it was ready, he pulled it from her mouth and checked the reading. "You've got a fever. It's a low-grade fever, but a fever nonetheless. Here, let me check your throat."

Akito opened her mouth again and let him push her tongue down with a tongue depressor while shining a flashlight into her mouth.

"Yeah, it's pretty red and inflamed. I'll tell the maids which medicine to give you, so make sure you take it." Hatori sighed, throwing the depressor away. "Drink the rest of your tea to stay hydrated, and go to bed, Akito. Unless you want to make my job any harder."

"It might be entertaining," Akito replied with a small smile.

Hatori didn't smile back.

"Okay, fine." She said, before obediently drinking the rest of the tea in her cup and moving to crawl into her futon.

"Thank you, Akito. I'll come back to check on you again tomorrow, alright?"

"Alright," Akito replied, watching the man turn off the lights in her room and leave.

Akito didn't fall asleep until a few minutes after drinking the cup of cold syrup the maid had brought in for her. She recognized the fruity, but still disgusting, taste of the medicine. It was the night time medicine for severe colds and flus. Apparently, Hatori really wanted her to go to sleep. She pulled the blankets up over her shoulders to keep warm and drifted off in about half an hour.

When she woke up again, it was pitch black outside. She groaned and turned over to try and fall back asleep, only to find a pair of knees kneeling just beside her head.

She sat up quickly as her eyes were still adjusting to the dark.

"Good morning. Or, evening, I suppose. It's just about midnight." Ren said softly.

"Good god, it escaped." Akito groaned, laying back down. "What are you doing here? Leave."

"I thought you ought to know what was keeping your dear Shigure so busy today." Ren hummed, reaching out to stroke her daughter's hair. She never pet Akito's hair unless she was trying to mock her.

Akito grabbed Ren's wrist the moment she felt the woman's long fingers at the crown of her head. She held the wrist tightly, holding eye contact with her mother. Ren was still smiling.

"Shigure's busy with schoolwork. He told me so himself." Akito said.

"Oh, is that what he said?" Ren giggled. "When did he tell you that?"

"Last night," Akito replied, frowning. "What are you playing at. Spell it out or I'll get a maid to drag you out of here by your ears."

Ren just laughed and used her free hand to reach over and pinch Akito's cheek, shaking her daughter's head back and forth. "You're an idiot if you think you scare me. Why would I be afraid of a sickly little girl?" she laughed.

Akito slapped the hand away from her cheek.

Ren was still laughing and smiling down at her. "Shigure might have been busy last night with schoolwork, but he was busy with me from about noon today to just about an hour ago. I figured you ought to know he's been lying to you."

Akito's eyes went wide at the words. She couldn't be sure if Ren was lying to mess with her head, or if she was telling the truth.

"Some dog he is. They're supposed to be loyal, aren't they?" Ren mused, looking around the room, then back at her daughter and laughing at the look on the girl's face. "You don't believe me? Go find him. Ask him for yourself."

Akito said nothing and just got out of her bed, pulling on a coat over her nagajuban and making sure the robe was still tied securely around her waist. She walked herself out of her room and to Shigure's house just a little bit away from the main house. The lights were still on when she got there, and someone else's car was parked in front of it.

The front door was unlocked, so Akito let herself inside. She found Shigure sitting at a table with a woman she'd never seen before.

"Akito? Hatori said you were sick. What are you doing here?" Shigure asked, his eyes wide behind his glasses.

"Was there any truth in what Ren said?" Akito demanded.

"Ren? Well, what did she say?" Shigure asked, a small smile playing on his lips.

"Were you with her from noon today until about an hour ago?" Akito asked, tapping her bare foot on the floor.

"Until an hour ago? Jesus, no. What do you think I am, a newlywed?" Shigure laughed. "No, I was only with her until about three or four this afternoon. Or, yesterday afternoon, technically. Hey, look, Mitchan, it's tomorrow!"

The unfamiliar woman looked like she was about to wet herself. "I, uhm, I think I'm going to… I'm going to leave the room." Mitchan stammered, looking between Shigure and Akito, who looked to her to have murder in her eyes.

"Good idea," Akito replied, smiling as sweetly as the cough syrup had tasted.

Akito waited until they were alone in the room before reeling back to Shigure. "So, I take it you're sleeping with her, too?"

"Mitchan's just my new editor, Aki," Shigure replied, standing up from the table.

Akito hated the way he used his height to his advantage. At about a full head taller than her, he could easily look down at her.

"Oh, my mistake. I forgot you have standards." Akito spat back. "Standards which seem to include my rabid bitch of a mother."

"Akito, why are you mad? You should be flattered I'd choose a woman who looks like she could be your twin." Shigure teased, crossing his arms over his chest. "You're a spitting image of Ren, you know. If you let yourself be a woman, you'd be just as pretty as her."

Akito glowered at that and raised her hand to strike Shigure with the back of it.

Shigure grabbed her wrist, holding her hand still in his firm grasp while he frowned down at her. "It's more similar to sleeping with you, than you choosing Kureno over me. We don't even look remotely similar."

Akito blinked at that before using her free hand to slap Shigure across the face. Shigure paused for a bit at the slap before grabbing Akito's other wrist and holding her wrists in place above her head.

"What do you care what I do with Kureno?" She spat. "You barely talk to the guy. Sleeping with my mother is worse than sleeping with Kureno."

"Jesus, you really don't even try to understand me, do you?" Shigure sighed, pushing Akito hard into a wall to pin her there.

Akito struggled against Shigure's hold, to no avail. Regardless of the state of her health, he'd always been significantly stronger than her. "I understand you're some sort of sexual deviant. You like this." she finally replied, bringing a knee up between his legs to rub the growing tent in his pants. She kept eye contact with him as she pulled her knee down before quickly bringing it back up with as much force as she could.

Shigure groaned and crumpled in front of her, letting her go free.

"God, you're so stupid." Akito spat, moving to stand over him and push the heel of her foot into his injured groin. "Stupid, stupid boy."

"Akito… Akito, what do you want?" Shigure gasped through the pain, trying to grab her shin to pull her foot away.

"Leave. I want you to leave. Pack your things quickly before I pour bleach on your clothes. Find some house outside, I don't care. If I see you still living on the inside come noon, I'll make sure you live to regret it." Akito growled back.

Shigure just nodded. "Alright, Akito. Okay. I'll see if my parents' old place is still vacant. I'll call right now." he replied compulsively.

Akito pulled her foot away from Shigure's groin. "Good." She replied before turning to leave the room, finding the editor sitting in the kitchen of the house, staring at her as if she was the devil.

"Shigure's going to be busy for the rest of the night. Make sure you get his new address from him." She said shortly. "It was nice to meet you, Mitchan. Good night."

With that, Akito padded out of the house and returned to the main house and her futon.

The next morning, Akito woke up to the sound of her maids talking amongst themselves, wondering why Shigure was moving his things in boxes into the back of Hatori's car. She got up just long enough to watch out the window with them.

"Sir, do you know anything about this?" One of the maids asked. "Why's he moving to the outside?"

"I told him to. Shigure's stupid. The further he can get from my sight, the better." Akito replied before yawning and returning to her bedroom.


	5. Chapter 5

"Excuse me," Yuki said softly as he slid open the door and let himself inside of Akito's room.

"Come in, Yuki," Akito replied, kneeling at the low table in her room. She watched as Yuki quietly walked over and knelt down on the other side of the table, sitting formally in front of her. The boy kept his eyes down to avoid making eye contact with her. Akito watched him get settled and poured out a cup of green tea for him.

"Thank you," he said softly, taking the cup from her.

"I think you know why I called you here," Akito said, pulling her coat up after noticing it had slipped off her shoulder. "Spring will come faster than you think, so you need to start worrying about applying for high school. With your grades and family influence, you could go to any school in the area. Have you been thinking about where you want to go?"

"Y-yes. I was kind of hoping to apply to the public school in town." Yuki admitted, continuing to avert his gaze away from Akito's face.

"The public school? Do you mean the co-ed one?" Akito asked, looking over at her younger cousin.

"Yes, sir," Yuki replied, staring into his cup of green tea.

"I'm afraid something like that isn't possible," Akito replied shortly, sipping her tea and pushing an application towards Yuki. "I think it would be best if you went to the local all-boys school. There's less risk that way."

"But," Yuki started, hesitantly looking up at her, albeit only for a second. "Isn't the goal to blend in? Wouldn't it be weird not to go to public school?"

"Yuki, I didn't want to make all your elementary school friends forget about you, but when you make a mess, it needs to be cleaned up. Co-ed schools are a recipe for messes."

Yuki frowned. "The kids in elementary school were fine with me as I am. Maybe, if something happened, it wouldn't be as bad as you think."

"Children in elementary school believe in fairy tales and take things they don't totally understand in stride. They get crueler as they grow. At your age, if your peers caught you turning into a rat, you'd never hear the end of it. They'd call you a monster, an abomination, because, to be honest, you are. A human being shifting forms involuntarily when a member of the opposite sex embraces them? That's completely monstrous. You're not a normal person. You've never been a normal person, and you will never be a normal person, no matter how hard you wish it. You're a Sohma, a Cursed Sohma. The sooner you accept that the easier life will be."

Yuki sat quietly, still avoiding looking up into her eyes. His bottom lip was quivering, but he looked determined not to let himself cry.

"Is… the cat going to the all-boys school, too?" He asked.

"For the foreseeable future, Kyo will remain in the mountains in Kazuma's dojo. I don't think someone as dumb as Kyo would be able to get into any high school, even if he wanted to." Akito replied, sipping her tea contently. "Plans for him are still in the air right now."

Yuki nodded in understanding and took a sip of tea before coughing into the crook of his elbow.

"Ugh, stop! Your germs are going to go everywhere and make me sick. They'll need to sanitize my room again." Akito snapped, covering her nose and mouth with the side of her arm and her sleeve.

"I'm sorry, Akito!" Yuki panicked as Akito got up to grab him by the hair and pull him to his feet. He didn't fight back as she pushed him out of the room, shoved the high school application form into his hands, and slam the door shut.

Akito sighed and rubbed her temples to try and ease her growing headache. She drank the rest of her cup of tea and sat down in front of the small TV in the corner of her bedroom, her knees tucked up under her chin as she turned it on and started to flip through the channels. She only stopped when she got to a rerun episode of an anime about girls trying to become successful idols. She set the remote aside and watched the show, mouthing along with the upbeat opening song and quickly relaxing once again. She couldn't help but wonder what it might be like to one day wear flouncy skirts and frilly blouses and sweaters that were too big but highlighted how small and cute the person wearing it was. Maybe Shigure was onto something when he always tried to get her to at least stop binding her breasts.

"Akito? Are you feeling alright?" Kureno asked as he let himself into the room. Akito decided she must not have heard him knock. "Yuki said you seemed upset."

"Yuki was just being annoying again," Akito replied, turning her attention back to the anime.

Kureno said nothing and just took a seat on the floor beside her. Akito leaned her head onto his shoulder silently, only speaking again when a commercial break started.

"You, Hatori, Ayame, and Shigure all went to that all-boys school, right?" She asked, holding onto Kureno's bicep.

"That's right. Why do you ask?" Kureno replied, letting the girl grab and hold him however she wanted.

"Yuki was making a big fuss about it. It was really annoying, actually. He's got it in his head that he should have the right to go to a big public school full of girls." Akito replied before cracking a smile. "I guess it's only natural that he becomes a big hormonal monster. He's about that age. He probably only wants to go there because of all those little sluts who run around the public school."

Kureno didn't reply to the thought, and just let Akito relax back into him as the show came back on.

Yuki returned to Akito after she'd returned home from some business she'd had in Tokyo a week or so later. He'd been careful to stay out of her way and watch his step around the head of the family, in the hopes that it would foster a better mood towards him.

"What a pain. Americans come to Japan and expect us all to speak English, never even asking whether or not we speak it." Akito griped to one of the maids, loosening her tie and unbuttoning the top button of her shirt. "One of these days I'm just going to pretend I don't speak it. Watch the presumptuous little bitch flop like a fish on a hook."

"Tourists can be a pain, sir, you're right." The maid replied cordially.

Yuki swallowed when he saw Akito in a bad mood, watching the head come down the hallway. He wondered if he should hold off the meeting until a later date when Akito was more relaxed.

"Should I bring you some tea, sir?" The maid asked once they got back to Akito's bedroom.

"Chamomile would be lovely," Akito replied with a nod, sliding the door open and slipping out of his blazer.

"I'll bring it right away, sir." The maid said, bowing and excusing herself.

Yuki slipped back into his own nearby bedroom, smiling softly to himself. Chamomile tea would calm Akito down, giving him the opportunity he needed.

Akito sighed as she sank down on the soft tatami floor, trying to relax while the maid got the tea. It only took a couple minutes for her to come back with a tray holding a full teapot and a single cup.

Akito sipped the tea as soon as it was poured out, humming softly at the taste. Her cup of tea was about gone when she spotted a small figure near her doorway in the hallway.

"Yuki, I can see you lurking out there." She called. "If you want something, come in."

Yuki slid the door open, politely excusing himself as he walked into the room and lingered near the door. "I was hoping to talk more about high school with you, sir."

"Then sit down." Akito replied, gesturing to an empty spot at the table. "have you been thinking about what I said?"

"Yes, sir," Yuki replied. "I talked to my parents, too, and they said-"

"Ugh, your parents." Akito groaned, her nose wrinkling in disgust. "A couple of good-for-nothings if you ask me. Your mother's a social climbing snake, and your father's completely spineless. In short, I don't care about their opinions. What are your thoughts, Yuki?"

Yuki blinked, swallowing as he watched Akito stab one of the daifuku on a small plate with a toothpick before eating it. If he didn't watch his step, he could be the next thing Akito stabbed and ate whole.

"U-um, well, Akito, I sort of applied to the co-ed school early, and they already accepted me with a full scholarship. I was thinking I could go there and be really careful. And, since Shigure's house is much closer, it might be more convenient for me to move in with him, too." Yuki stammered.

Akito paused and looked up at Yuki, her brows knit in confusion. "Why would you want to go there? Of all the schools you could get into, why would you want to go there?"

"Well, um, it is closer to the main house than the all-boys school. I'd be able to stay on Sohma property. That'd be good, wouldn't it?" Yuki tried.

Akito thought over the argument and sighed through her nose. "And you'd move to live with Shigure, then?"

"Yes, sir," Yuki replied with a nod.

Akito thought over the possibility a bit more. Shigure didn't strike her as the type to be excited about sharing a living space with a pubescent boy. She could remember him gushing about his new 'bachelor pad' one evening after she'd kicked him out of the main house. Plus, the man had felt a little distant lately, citing work as his reason for not being able to come over the nights she called him. Putting a teenage boy in his bachelor paradise would be a good punishment, and might drive him out of the house more often. And when Shigure wanted to escape his responsibilities or his home, he almost always ended up by her side. He was addicted to her.

It was just science. Letting Yuki have his way with school and his living situation would ultimately drive Shigure back to her side more often.

Akito smiled to herself as she stabbed another daifuku with the toothpick. "Alright. You can go to that co-ed school if you live with Shigure. Of course, we'll keep an eye on things, just in case." she hummed, holding the daifuku skewered on the toothpick out to Yuki.

Yuki took the sweet from her, blinking in shock that Akito would ever go along with the plan that easily. "Thank you, sir."

"When you do move in with Shigure, tell him I said, 'You're welcome, bastard.' Until then, it can be our surprise for him." Akito hummed, smiling happily as she picked up another toothpick and stabbed the last of the daifuku, eating it like it was the most wonderful thing in the world.

"Um, I will," Yuki replied, moving to get up from the table. "Thank you again, Akito."

Akito smiled back at Yuki as the boy excused himself from the room and slid the door shut. In just a month or so, the school year would end, and Yuki would move in with Shigure, and her plan would fall into place on its own. Soon, Shigure would be on his knees, practically begging to spend just an hour or two by her side. There was no way he was ever going to survive sharing a house with a teenager.

Akito was still smiling when Hatori came over to check her health for the second time that week.

"You look happy." The man hummed as he knelt down next to her to check her throat, that had been so sore she could barely speak over a whisper a couple days earlier.

"I am. Shigure's been distant, and I found a way to bring him back to me." She replied before obediently opening her mouth to let him shine his flashlight into it.

"He's been distant with you?" He asked with a cocked eyebrow. "God, I wish I had that problem. Neither he nor Ayame will ever leave me alone."

"Every time I ask Shigure if he can come over, he says he needs to work, or he's busy with something." Akito sighed. "It's infuriating. He's been so cold and distant lately."

"I'll put a word in that he should come to see you again. No doubt it won't be long until I see him again." Hatori said, going through the routine actions of the check-up.

"Thank you, Hatori." Akito hummed. "He really gets under my skin sometimes. I think he might do it on purpose, really. He's the cruelest man I've ever known."

"You still want to sleep with him, though?" Hatori guessed, having had this conversation multiple times, with both Akito and Shigure at that point.

"I still want to sleep with him, though," Akito confirmed. "Can you blame me? He's one of those lovers who gets attached to you after you sleep with him once. It's a foolproof way to keep him by my side."

Hatori coughed awkwardly and just shook his head. "Make sure that guy wears protection. He's enough trouble as it is, we don't need him making more."

"I know that. I'm not stupid, Hatori." Akito replied.

"You aren't. He is." Hatori said.

Akito smiled at that and moved to hug the older man around the middle. She felt the man's hand rise to start stroking her hair.

"Hug me back, Hatori," Akito said. It was only then that Hatori wrapped his arms back around her to return the embrace. Akito couldn't help but wonder if he ever would have hugged her if she hadn't asked for it. "You won't leave me, right, Hatori? You'll never leave me?"

"I'm not going to leave you or abandon you, Akito. Has Ren been getting into your head again?" Hatori replied on cue.

Akito didn't reply. It felt as if her mother had a mission to find her nearly every day since she'd slept with Shigure, simply to tell her the same things she'd been saying to her since she was a child.

If it wasn't for the curse, all the people Akito was close to would abandon her.

Whenever she cried, they all got annoyed. Whenever she made any sort of fuss, they all got angry. If it wasn't for the curse forcing them otherwise, they'd all hate her and abandon her. If she died young as Akira had, they would barely miss her, if they missed her at all.

It was always the same argument, and Akito could never refute it because she had no proof her mother wasn't right.

"You need to stop listening to her, Akito. It's not good for the psyche." Hatori said softly as he held the girl close and tucked her head under his chin.

"It's easier said than done." Akito huffed, burying her face into his shoulder.

"I know it is." Hatori sighed. "I've always thought she should be kept away from you. It's not like she's ever given you any sort of parental guidance."

Akito said nothing, but nodded and let Hatori scoop her up into his arms and carry her off to her bed.

"Your throat is still a little inflamed. I say, just keep drinking your tea and get plenty of rest, alright? Maybe put on TV and watch something you like. Stress won't do your health any favors." Hatori said as he set her down on the futon and made sure she was warm enough.

"Okay. Thank you, Hatori." Akito replied.

Hatori smiled and tried to lift her spirits by ruffling her hair gently. "I'll see you soon, Akito. Hopefully not too soon."

"I'm not making any promises," Akito replied, pouring out another glass of tea and turning on the TV.

Maybe, with the right combination of chamomile and girly anime, she'd temporarily lose the ability to hear herself think.


	6. Chapter 6

"So, Kyo came back." Shigure hummed as he sat next to Akito on her veranda, watching the girl hold out a pair of fingers for a nearby sparrow to alight upon.

"Kyo? What made him come back?" Akito asked curiously.

"Who knows? But, he's staying in my house now." Shigure hummed. "I guess he's gonna go to the same school as Yuki."

"Those two under the same roof? Is that really a good idea?" Akito asked with a small frown.

"Not for my repair bills." Shigure sighed. "Kyo literally came crashing through the roof when he showed up. He wasn't even on his feet for a second before threatening to beat the life out of Yuki."

"Living with gunpowder and fire would be less chaotic than those two," Akito said, smiling a bit as she absently stroked the sparrow's head with a finger.

"Probably. But neither of them are ever gonna even consider living here again." Shigure replied, smiling back at her.

Akito's smile fell into a scowl.

"Oh, yeah! There's something else I should tell you." Shigure said, smiling even wider. "So, it turns out one of Yuki and Kyo's classmates was homeless and was living in a tent on the land. I guess she didn't think anyone lived nearby. But, with that landslide the other day, her living situation is kaput. So, she's gonna be living with us!"

Akito's eyes went wide at that and looked at Shigure in confusion. "You let some random homeless girl live with you three? Shigure, you're not that stupid."

"I don't think I'm stupid at all." Shigure hummed. "But, she found out about the curse. She's promised to keep the family secret, but I think Yuki put the worm in her head that, when she meets you, you'll have her memory erased or something."

"What about this situation doesn't seem stupid to you? It's a recipe for disaster." Akito asked with a frown.

"Well, the thing with Tohru is that she's extremely dense. She's dumb, Aki. She's the exact opposite of you. I think we could use her to get what we want." Shigure said with a small smile.

"We?"

"I'm not your enemy, Akito. I've always ever been your closest ally." Shigure said, taking Akito's hand and lacing their fingers together.

"Sometimes you have a funny way of showing that," Akito replied, holding onto Shigure's hand.

"I just want the best for you, Akito, and for the family. Tohru's an idiot and I'm on her good side. If we keep her around, we can make her do whatever we want." Shigure said, leaning in closer to Akito and pressing their foreheads together.

"Is she easily likable?" Akito asked the bird on her finger flying away as she moved to wrap her arms around Shigure's shoulders.

"Extremely."

"The Zodiac seems tense, fractured. Perhaps she can be used to unite everyone again, and bring them all back to me."

"Exactly. Leave it to you to think of something like that."

"What can I say? I want the moon."

Shigure just smiled in reply and leaned in further to seal their plan of action with a deep kiss. Akito grabbed the straw fan Shigure had brought with and used it to block their faces from view, not willing to part from her lover to move out of sight just yet. She lost track of time as the scent of Shigure's skin filled her head, only snapping from her daze as Shigure moved next to her and lifted her into his arms to carry her inside to her bedroom.

Within a few hours, Akito was lying nude on her futon while Shigure continued to kiss her skin, his face nuzzling between her breasts. She started to absently play with his hair, smiling happily as they laid lazily with each other.

"It's weird. Yuki used to have a room not too far from yours, right? You think he ever heard us accidentally?" Shigure asked as he scooted up to rest his head on her shoulder and absently massage one of her breasts.

"Probably," Akito replied with a small laugh. "He'd be too scared to ever say anything to anyone, though."

"That sounds about right." Shigure chuckled. "Oh, speaking of Yuki, he and Kyo have some sort of school festival coming up. Yuki's been roped into wearing a dress."

"What?" Akito asked before laughing aloud. "Oh, my god, I need to go to see that."

Shigure grinned and leaned up to kiss her cheeks and lips again. "I'll leave the flyer tomorrow."

"Wonderful." Akito hummed, moving to start playing with Shigure's dark hair and staying next to him until he needed to leave and head home. Akito dressed and watched Shigure disappear from sight, still smiling happily to herself.

Akito got excited for the school cultural festival as the day drew closer and closer. In the morning, she dressed in plain black pants and a black turtleneck sweater and ate breakfast quickly. She popped a cough drop into her mouth in an attempt to quell the coughing fits that had kept her up all night and headed down the halls of the main house to find Hatori.

When she got to his house nearby, he was still drinking his morning coffee, and still seemed tired when she got to his front door.

"Hatori! Are you almost ready to go?" Akito asked eagerly, a disposable camera in her hand.

"You look really flushed, Akito. Are you sure you feel well enough to leave the house at all?" Hatori asked with a small frown.

"Of course. I feel perfectly fine." Akito replied before coughing into her elbow rather violently.

Hatori cocked an eyebrow. "Sure. Come here, Akito."

"I'm fine!" Akito insisted. "Come on, it's starting about now."

"Akito," Hatori repeated.

Akito sighed and reluctantly walked closer to Hatori and let the man push her bangs out of the way and press the back of his hand to her forehead.

"Akito, you're burning up. Let me check your temperature. Go ahead and sit down." Hatori said.

Akito sighed and took a seat at Hatori's small dinner table, watching the man disappear into a room to get the thermometer from his bag. He came back and promptly stuck it under her tongue. While the device registered her temperature, he picked up his coffee cup and finished it off.

He took the thermometer once it was finished. "Jesus Christ. Akito, you're running a fever of 104 degrees. You need to stay home today."

"What? But Yuki's going to be in a dress, it'll be hilarious!" Akito whined.

"You're not going to that festival, doctor's orders. You're going to go back to your room, put your pajamas back on, and go right back to bed."

"But, Hatori!"

"I'm serious, Akito. Do I need to carry you back or can you go on your own?"

Akito huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. It was only when Hatori moved closer to grab her that she finally moved and swatted him away.

"Fine, fine! But you need to go in my place. I want pictures, Hatori." She said, getting up and pushing the camera into Hatori's hands.

"Alright, Akito," Hatori replied before setting a hand on her back and gently guiding her back to her bedroom to make sure she didn't pass out on the way. He didn't leave until he'd seen her change back into her pajamas and crawl under the warm covers of her futon. "Sleep well, Akito."

"I'm going to be mad if there are no pictures when you come back," Akito said, still pouting from her bed.

Hatori just smiled and made sure her room was dark before bowing respectfully and leaving with the door shut behind him.

Akito fell asleep within a few minutes, sleeping to hard to dream and only waking up when she felt a hand shaking her shoulder gently.

"Sir?" One of the older maids asked softly as Akito rubbed the sleep from her eyes. "I'm sorry to wake you, but it's time for lunch."

"Oh, alright," Akito replied drowsily, sitting up and moving over to the table to eat.

"Also, Hatori's returned. He told me to give these to you." The maid said, handing over a small photo envelope.

Akito took a moment to register it before smiling and taking the envelope and pulling out the picture inside. She gasped and laughed with a hand over her mouth at the sight of Yuki in what looked like a very frilly, albeit out of style, ankle-length dress.

"Look at this! Isn't that the most hilarious thing you've ever seen?" She said, showing the photo to the maid, who blinked in shock and laughed lightly as well.

"It's very funny. The dress weirdly suits him, I think." The maid agreed politely.

"Oh my god, it does!" Akito laughed. "Do we have any sort of frame for this?"

"I'm sure we do. I'll find one for you, sir." The maid replied.

"That would be perfect." Akito hummed, setting the photo aside and starting to eat the simple meal of miso soup and rice that had been set in front of her.

The maid came back with a frame for the picture in a few minutes and put the photo inside of it for her. Akito smiled contently once the photograph had been framed and ate the rest of her food with ease. She yawned and crawled back into her futon to return to sleep.

She slept through the rest of the day, waking again only to eat dinner before bathing and returning to bed. She eyed the photo as she laid herself back down for the night and smiled softly. She'd have to make sure she showed the picture to Shigure the next time he came over. He'd think it was hilarious, and she was sure Yuki wouldn't ever let him know what happened at the culture festival himself.

Akito woke up late in the morning to the sound of Momiji talking excitedly and loudly to someone outside. She rubbed her eyes drowsily, deciding to just ignore the boy as she got up and finger combed through her hair and bangs. She guessed it wouldn't be too much longer until Hatori stopped in to check her temperature, so she got out of bed and wrapped her roll of bandages around her breasts, just in case she saw anyone else during the day. She checked her work in the mirror, satisfied when she saw the flatter shape her chest had taken. With that, she secured her nagajuban shut once again with the obi.

"Knock, knock," Shigure said from her doorway. "Look at you, up bright and early at…. ten am."

Akito rolled her eyes as Shigure tapped his bare wrist. "As if you're really one to talk about sleep schedules."

"That's fair." Shigure laughed, stepping into the room. "Have you eaten yet?"

"Not yet, no. I only just woke up." Akito replied

"Well, damn, Aki. You're making me look like a well-adjusted adult." Shigure laughed, his nose wrinkling as he teased her.

"Even I can't make you look like something you're not," Akito replied, smiling back at Shigure and moving to brush some of his dark hair from his face.

"What, you don't have any sort of crazy god powers?" Shigure asked with a grin as he took hold of her hand and held onto it.

"Not unless you include being chronically ill," Akito replied, lacing her fingers with his.

"Then explain how you've made me a lovesick wreck." Shigure hummed, leaning down to nuzzle her cheek with his nose.

Akito felt her face get warmer against Shigure's nose, only burning hotter as the man gently started to kiss her cheek and all over the side of her face. She wrapped her arms to hug him close and held on tightly to the fabric of his kimono.

"I love you." She said softly.

"I know," Shigure replied, kissing her cheek a couple more times. "I love you, too. I love you more than anyone ever could."

Akito smiled at the words and let Shigure thread his fingers through her hair. She sat next to him in comfortable silence for a little bit before moving to grab the framed photo and bring it back to him.

"Look what Hatori brought back from Kyo and Yuki's high school festival yesterday." She hummed, handing him the photo.

Shigure blinked before laughing heartily as he took the photo. "Oh my god. That is the best thing I've seen all day." he grinned. "He didn't say anything about a dress when I asked about the festival yesterday."

"I wanted to go, but Hatori wouldn't let me." Akito sighed.

"Maybe next time there's a big event or something. The entrance ceremony will be coming up in spring. Momiji and Hatsuharu will be first years, so you could probably go to that and see everyone then." Shigure hummed. "Plus, there's always the New Year's banquet coming up."

"That's true." Akito nodded, leaning into Shigure. "Is there any news with the lodger girl?"

"Oh, Tohru? No, not really. She's met Kagura, Momiji, Hatsuharu, and Hatori now. She's really bad at guessing which animal everyone is." Shigure replied. "It was kind of funny, it took her until Kagura had transformed in front of her for her to finally figure out she's the boar. She still treated it like a big eureka moment."

"She must be really stupid, then," Akito said with a small smile. "Good, that's good to hear."

"Everything's going pretty well so far." Shigure agreed. "It's looking good."

"We'll see how New Years goes."

"It'll be fine, just like it always is," Shigure assured her, standing up to leave.

"You're leaving already?" Akito asked, standing up after him.

"Yeah, sorry. I've got a deadline I should probably at least try to make." Shigure hummed, giving her back the photo and pressing a kiss to her forehead. "I'll see you at the banquet if I don't stop by earlier. I'll probably stop by earlier."

"Alright. I'll see you later, then." Akito hummed, reluctantly letting him go and watching him disappear down the hallway.

She sighed once she was alone again. It wouldn't be long until a maid brought in some food for her. Akito yawned and moved to the large circular window on the wall of her room and slid it open to let the fresh, crisp air into her room. She knelt in front of it and relaxed inside the sill, feeling the winter wind whip her hair around her face.

A little bit away from the house, Shigure was talking to someone as he walked out of the main estate. The unfamiliar voice didn't sound like any girl Akito had ever met. The girl was following Shigure around like a duckling, though looking around at everything around her in wonder. The girl turned her attention towards the main house and stared.

Akito could only assume she was the one called Tohru. She knew everyone in the family already, so she could only be Shigure's lodger. Tohru's large, doe-like brown eyes got even wider as they made eye contact with each other. Her long brown hair was whipping in front of her face in the wind.

Akito held her gaze for a moment before getting up and sliding the window shut as her meal arrived.


	7. Chapter 7

Most people came early for New Years and milled around, chatting with each other. Just so long as people came before the meal was served, they were free to come on their own time. Momiji had arrived early to put on the ornate kimono set that had been given to him for his dance later that day. The only people who had yet to arrive were Shigure, Yuki, and Kyo. Kyo always seemed to come, despite not being allowed inside the banquet. Akito wasn't sure why he even bothered anymore.

Akito wasn't dressed yet when Shigure appeared at her door and let himself into the room. He didn't seem to have dressed up for the banquet at all unless the haori he wore over his kimono counted.

"I thought you'd be out with the others, bothering Hatori or something." Akito hummed as Shigure came into the room and walked over to stand next to her.

"I wanted to check in with you, first. You're not dressed yet?" Shigure asked.

"I'm getting there," Akito replied, moving to stand up and go over to her wardrobe to pull out the dark blue men's kimono and hakama that had been prepared for the banquet.

The dark kimono was generally kept in a dust bag and stored away for safekeeping. It was only ever brought out for the head of the family to wear at large ceremonies like the New Year's banquet. Akito ran her fingers over the fabric. It wasn't anything new, she'd been wearing it every year since she could fit into it. But, still, she couldn't forget the sight of her father wearing it. As a child, the kimono seemed so huge. Akira had always seemed so much taller than her. She pressed her nose to the fabric, sighing when it only smelled like the dry-cleaners.

"You need help with that?" Shigure asked, watching as she pulled the kimono on and worked on tying the obi herself.

"Yes, please," Akito replied.

Shigure came over and helped her arrange the kimono and then tied the obi tightly around the top of her hips. The top of the kimono was just loose enough to hide any semblance of a feminine figure. From there, he helped her into the hakama and tied them securely at her hips, tucking the knot under the obi.

"There you go. I think you're ready." Shigure hummed. "I still think you'd look better in a furisode, but that's neither here nor there."

"You and I both know that's not going to happen any time soon," Akito replied, pulling the haori on over the kimono. "I'm guessing Yuki's out talking with everyone, then?"

"Oh, yeah, that's what I wanted to talk to you about. You're not gonna like it, though." Shigure hummed, a small smile playing on his lips as Akito moved to fix her hair and bangs in the mirror.

"What do you mean?" Akito asked, looking back at Shigure. He only smiled wider.

"Yuki's decided to play hooky. He's staying home with Tohru for New Years." Shigure replied.

Akito stared at him in shock for a moment before clenching her jaw shut. It would be hard to use Tohru for her benefit when the little bitch so easily forgot her place.

"Why isn't he coming?" She asked, her dark eyes burning as she looked up at Shigure.

"Hey, don't shoot the messenger," Shigure said, holding his hands in the air.

Akito grabbed the collar of Shigure's kimono, yanking him down to look her in the eyes. "Why isn't Yuki here? Why didn't he come?" She asked again through gritted teeth.

Shigure just kept smiling at her. "God, you look about ready to eat me. Usually, when we're together, it's the other way around."

Akito huffed and pushed the man away from her as hard as possible, sending him back to land on the tatami floor on his ass. "Where is he? You should have dragged the little rat here by his tail!" She screamed.

"He's at home, with Kyo and Tohru. They both felt bad about leaving her alone on New Years." Shigure finally replied. "Her mom died some months ago, and I guess they always used to spend it together. They felt bad about leaving her alone."

"That's not an excuse. They should have come anyway. What do they care about some dumb little squatter?" Akito huffed, starting to pace about her room.

"I don't know, Aki." Shigure sighed as he got up to his feet.

"It was your job to keep an eye on them and keep things under control. Now, there's going to be an empty spot at the table for the first time in years, and it's all because of some little outsider! This is your fault, Shigure! If you could just grow a spine for once in your life, we wouldn't have this problem!"

Shigure said nothing as he dusted off his kimono, letting the girl shout at him. "Well, there's nothing that can be done now, is there? So, why not just enjoy New Years and deal with them later?" he replied with a small frown.

"Well, there's no choice now." Akito huffed, leading Shigure out of her bedroom and down the long wooden hallways of the main house. The room that had been prepared had been set up and was now noisy with the voices of the ten people gathered inside, sitting around the long table.

The maids at the doors quietly bowed to Akito when she arrived at the door and slid it open for her. The room quieted down almost immediately as she walked into the room and took her place at the head of the table.

"Thank you all for coming today. It's so wonderful to see everyone." Akito said with a warm smile at all the seated members of the zodiac, taking the small cup of plum sake set in front of her and raising it in greeting.

The other members of the zodiac did the same, the adults raising glasses of sake while the children rose glasses of sparkling cider.

"It makes me so happy to be with everyone again. I hope to see you all continue on in good health in the coming year, and I look forward to many more banquets in the future. I love you all so very, very much." She said in a toast. Everyone drank from their glasses after she drank from hers.

Akito still wasn't used to the taste of alcohol on her tongue, but the fruity flavor of the sake made it a little easier to handle. Once the toast had been made, maids came in to serve the first course of the banquet to everyone at the table, starting with Akito and making their way around the table. As everyone began to eat, conversations started up again, and things became just as lively as they had been.

Akito watched from the head of the table as everyone spoke with each other. She ate her first course of miso soup in silence. Part of her longed for someone sitting nearby to turn to her and start talking with her as well, but nothing like that ever happened. That banquet went relatively the same way every other banquet did. They ate, the others talked with each other, and Akito wondered why she felt so lonely while surrounded by family members and loved ones.

By the end of the meal, Akito had had enough of the little glasses of sake for her head to feel light and fuzzy. As everyone departed, she caught Shigure by the sleeve of his kimono as he was chatting with Ayame and Hatori.

"When did you say that entrance ceremony is for the high school?" She asked him, holding onto his sleeve.

"It's not for over a month or so. It's the first Monday of April." Shigure replied. "You're really flushed, do you feel okay?"

"I'm fine, it's just the alcohol," Akito replied dismissively. "We'll make plans to go to the school when the time comes closer."

"Sounds good," Shigure replied before laughing and patting her on the back. "Sleep it off, Aki."

"It's because I'm not used to alcohol yet, that's all. I haven't built a tolerance for it." Akito said defensively.

"Uh huh. Sure. It has nothing to do with your height or weight." Shigure hummed, resting a hand on the top of her head and sliding it to illustrate that she came up to his chin.

"Oh, get out of here. Go annoy the teenagers at home or something." Akito huffed, gently shoving his shoulder.

"Sleep tight, Aki." Shigure countered.

Akito rolled her eyes and turned to go back down the hall and strip off her kimono that had begun to feel overly hot on her body.

The next two months kept Akito busy enough to keep her mind occupied until the entrance ceremony for the local public high school came. On the morning of the first day of the new school year, Akito woke up early, dressed in a black turtleneck sweater and black men's jeans. She ate breakfast quickly and met Shigure and the family driver outside the main house.

The pair sat close to each other for the short ride through town, with Akito leaning against Shigure's chest the whole way there.

"Now, fair warning. they don't know you're coming. I kinda left that part out." Shigure hummed as they got to the high school and slid out of the car together.

"Oh, wonderful. Oh, well." Akito hummed before leaning back into the car to address the driver. "I'll call you when it's time to pick us up."

"Of course, sir." The driver replied with a nod.

With that, Akito shut the car door and turned to start up the path with Shigure and the many other parents to head into the school and get seated in the gymnasium for the entrance ceremony. They sat amongst the other parents and the older students in the gymnasium. Akito looked around the large room like she'd only ever seen in TV shows, having never gone to a traditional school herself.

"How do these ceremonies usually go?" She asked Shigure as everyone got settled.

"Well, soon the first years will come in, and everyone will clap because they made it this far. Then, the principal gives a speech, then the student council president or some other older student will give a speech, and then someone from the new group of students will give a speech. Then the kids will sing the school song, and start slowly heading to class. It's not exactly the most exciting thing ever." Shigure replied.

"I'll probably catch Yuki afterward, then." Akito hummed.

"Oh, for sure. I can find an old friend of mine who works here now and harass her." Shigure hummed happily.

"Don't make too much of a nuisance of yourself," Akito replied.

"When have I ever done anything like that?" Shigure asked with a grin.

Akito opened her mouth to reply but was cut off as the class of first years made their way into the gymnasium and everyone began to clap. She found Momiji and Hatsuharu with ease and waved to them with a smile. Momiji smiled back hesitantly, and Haru took a couple moments to register who she was before doing the same.

All the speeches given were more or less the same. Do your best, make the most of your first year at high school, you have a bright future ahead of you, and other optimistic platitudes. Akito wondered how the students didn't go crazy having to listen to the speeches every year for three years. She'd had quite enough by the time the speeches were over. She sat with her legs crossed as the second and third-year students all stood and sang the school song, more than happy when it was done and they filed out of the gymnasium with the other parents and grandparents.

"Alright, you have my phone number when you need me. I'm gonna annoy an old friend of mine." Shigure said once they were out of the room and off to the side together.

"Right. I'm going to find a bathroom, and then find Yuki." Akito replied with a nod.

"It's a plan," Shigure replied, patting her shoulder before they parted ways.

Akito wandered around the school until she found a bathroom, weaving through the crowds of students in the hallways as they milled about and talked before heading to class.

After re-emerging from the men's room, she stood off to the side of the hallway, thinking with her hands behind her back about where she might be able to find Yuki. The hallway was mostly empty until she heard a soft, happy humming that cut off her thoughts. She looked over to the source, not about to say anything until she saw it was coming from the lodger girl she'd seen months before. She was pretty sure it was the same girl, though it was hard to be sure since she'd only ever seen Tohru from afar.

"You look like you're having fun," Akito commented, watching to see what the girl did.

Tohru was smiling happily as she turned to see who was talking, her smile falling as she made eye contact with Akito. She looked scared.

"A-Akito Sohma…" Tohru guessed, watching with wide, doe eyes as Akito walked closer.

"That's right," Akito replied, standing in front of the girl, quietly glad to see she was a little shorter than her. "You must be Tohru Honda."

This only seemed to startle the girl more. "Y-Yes! It's nice to meet you!" She cried, bowing low at the waist in greeting.

Akito watched the girl greet her. It was perfectly polite, if not a little frazzled. She hadn't expected the girl to have much respect for authority, but the girl looked about ready to kneel on the floor and bow to her feet.

Tohru definitely looked like the person Shigure described her to be. She was adorable, one of the cutest girls Akito had ever seen off the cover of a magazine. Her brown eyes were big and bright, her hair looked as soft as spun silk, held partially out of the way with a pair of delicate ribbons. Her cheeks and lips were a sweet rosy pink and her little button nose reminded Akito of a doll. She was adorable but seemed painfully dumb. Akito could easily manipulate the girl, just by being polite to her.

"Hmmm," Akito hummed in thought before putting on a warm smile. "You seem like a nice girlish girl. I'm glad. And most of all, you're very cute."

Tohru straightened up, looking shocked at the compliments, her cheeks burning red. "What? N-no, I'm-!"

Akito laughed as Tohru stammered and flushed in front of her. "Oh, don't be flustered. You're adorable. I apologize for not meeting you when you came to the house, I'm actually rather shy when it comes to new people. You're not angry, I hope?"

Tohru continued to look surprised. Akito wondered what she'd been told about her.

"N-no! Of course not!" Tohru replied with a shake of her head.

"Oh, good. Well, allow me to introduce myself properly. I'm Akito, the head of the Sohma family. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, too!"

"I really hope we can be friends. Please continue to take good care of Yuki and the others."

"Akito." Another voice cut in.

Akito turned at the same time as Tohru to see Yuki walking down the hallway. He looked terrified to even be speaking to her.

"Yuki!" Akito said with a warm smile, holding her arms out to her younger cousin. "It feels like I haven't seen you in ages!"

"What were you just doing?" Yuki asked, his voice shaky and soft as she approached him.

"You're definitely taller. I think you've hit a growth spurt or something." Akito continued contently.

"What did you do to Tohru?" Yuki asked, his voice firmer.

Akito stopped in front of Yuki. The boy was just about the same height as her now, so she could look right into his eyes.

"Nothing. nothing at all. All I did was introduce myself." Akito replied before turning back to Tohru. "Isn't that right, Tohru? I was just introducing myself to you."

"Oh! Y-yes!" Tohru stammered, watching them from a bit away, still looking surprised by the world.

"But, Yuki, that aside, there was something I wanted to ask you." Akito hummed, turning back to Yuki and leaning in closer to hold his face as she whispered into his ear. "Why weren't you at New Years? Why wouldn't you come home? I've been lenient with you lately, but when you pull something like that, it really hurts me. Why would you be so dismissive of me? Maybe you need to be re-educated."

Yuki's eyes grew wide in fear and he started to tremble, but he didn't dare to step away from her or break eye contact. The boy looked close to tears.

"Maybe you need to spend some quality time in that special room of yours until you relearn your true nature." Akito hissed, gently rubbing Yuki's cheek with her thumb.

Suddenly, Tohru seemed to come to reality and pushed Akito away from Yuki with two hands. The shove wasn't hard enough to do anything but make Akito stumble a little, but it was unexpected all the same.

"Um, I'm sorry. But w-we should really be getting to class…" Tohru stammered, averting her eyes from Akito's. "The teacher will be mad at us…"

"I see," Akito replied. "My apologies. I should be getting back to Shigure, anyway, he's probably worried about me. Yuki, I hope you have an enjoyable time at high school. I'd be pleased if you came to see me one of these days."

Yuki said nothing in reply, keeping his eyes averted.

Akito turned to make her way back down the hallway. A little further away, Kyo had been watching the scene play out. Akito brushed past him as she walked down the hallway. She wrinkled her nose as her shoulder hit his.

"Disgusting." She sneered before walking away to find Shigure.

It didn't take her long to find the man talking to one of the teachers. The teacher looked about ready to use the book in her hand to hit him upside the head.

"I'm sorry, is my cousin bothering you?" She asked as she sidled up to Shigure.

"He's been bothering me since day one." The teacher replied.

"I know the feeling." Akito hummed. "Shigure, I'm going to call the car around. Say your goodbyes."

Akito stepped off to the side of the hallway to call the driver to come back to get them and bring them back to the main house. Shigure joined her once again as she hung up the phone and they walked out to the front of the building together.

"Who was that woman?" Akito asked curiously as they walked outside.

"Who, Mayu? She's just an old friend, Akito." Shigure replied.

"Uh huh. I see. I'm guessing you slept with her, then?" Akito asked.

"I'm not that big of a whore, you know." Shigure laughed.

"You could have fooled me," Akito replied.

"She's nothing but an old friend, Akito. Relax." Shigure sighed.

"Well, given your track record, excuse me if I like to be sure," Akito said as she slid into the car and got comfortable on the seat.

"Did you ever find Yuki and everyone, then?" Shigure asked as he got settled next to her.

"Oh, yes. I found that Tohru girl, too." Akito replied, bringing her feet up onto the seat to hug her knees to her chest. "She's so ugly. That girl has to be one of the ugliest people I've ever seen. She seems stupid, too, which is a relief. But Yuki will return to me, without a doubt. Just the sight of me still makes him freeze in his tracks. It's proof he'll never be able to forget me, you know."

"I'm not sure if there's really much risk of anyone leaving your side, to begin with, Akito," Shigure replied, moving to run his fingers through her hair.

"I can't be so sure. Someone missed New Years. It's not normal. I don't like being ignored in favor of some outsider girl, that Tohru." Akito replied, wrinkling her nose and sneering the name like it was some sort of disease. "I'll make her sorry she ever associated herself with this family. I swear to God, I'll make her suffer."


End file.
